Court begins inquiry into Jaffna students FR application

[TamilNet, Friday, 03 February 2006, 17:55 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court Thursday listed the Fundamental Rights (FR) application filed by fifteen Tamil students from the Jaffna district alleging discrimination in university admission for further hearing. The FR application came up for inquiry before a three member Bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices Shiranee Bandaranaike, Raja Fernando and N.G.Amaratunge, legal sources said.

The Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Attorney General have been cited as respondents in the FR application, legal sources said.

The petitioners state in their application that the variations in the intake from the Jaffna district on the District Quota have affected their prospects of gaining admission to the Faculties of Medicine and Engineering. This action had caused grave damage to their future education and violated their right to equal opportunity in education. A study of the past marks and allocation of admissions on District Quotas during the past few years has revealed that not only the candidates who sat from Jaffna district but also candidates who sat from several difficult areas such as Hambantota, Moneragala, Vavuniya and Amparai have faced similar discrepancies in the allocation of district Quota admissions, petitioners point out in the application, legal sources said.

Mr.Harsha Fernando, Senior State Counsel for the University Grants Commission submitted that he needed time to obtain instruction from his client (UGC), legal sources said.

Hence the three-member bench of the SC put off further inquiry into the FR application for February 27th Monday, legal sources said.