Madurai:
Stating that the Union government is primarily responsible for denying the benefits of educational loan scheme to those students who were admitted under the management quota, a single judge of the Madras High Court bench here on Wednesday directed the registry to place a writ petition before a division bench, as conflicting views arose over the scheme.
In an earlier order, Justice V Ramasubramanian had said that no direction can be issued to the bank to grant loan to an applicant in violation of the policy framed by the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), fixing the cut off marks as 60% and denying financial assistance to those who secured admission under management quota.
Taking a contrary view on the matter, Justice K K Sasidharan said, “Some of the poor students with a view to maintain their sick and aged parents work on part-time basis after college hours and sometimes even up to 11pm and only thereafter, they would be in a position to study. We cannot expect such students to score more than 60% marks. It is a pity that banks, which have invested Rs 1457.78 crore in a cash-strapped firm, are waging a legal war against a poor student, unmindful of the fact that his request was to sanction only a paltry sum,” he added.
After dealing a writ petition seeking to direct a bank to grant an educational loan, Justice Sasidharan said the issue requires consideration by a division bench. Large number of writ petitions are pending before this court challenging the decision taken by the banks to deny financial assistance to those who have obtained less than 60% marks in the qualifying examination or admitted under management quota.
Originally, the writ petition was filed at the instance of a student undergoing BE at a private engineering college. He sought a direction to the Alanganallur branch of Canara Bank to sanction educational loan, so as to enable him to pay tuition fees and hostel charges.
The application submitted by him was not entertained by the bank on the grounds that he was admitted under the management quota. According to the bank, the candidate should obtain 60% marks in the qualifying examination for considering his case for financial assistance.
After perusing the order of the single judge, Justice Sasidharan pointed that the model scheme prepared by the IBA, in 2000 was placed before the ministry of finance. Though the IBA wanted minimum qualification marks, as an eligibility criteria for sanctioning the loan, the Union government was not in favour of incorporating such drastic condition. Accordingly, the said condition was dropped.
Justice Sasidharan said, “The model scheme was subsequently revised in 2011. While revising the scheme and introducing Revised IBA Educational Loan Scheme 2011,once again, the IBA permitted the banks to fix cut off marks in qualifying examination for sanctioning loan. The said requirement was per se against the decision taken by the government. There is nothing on record to show that the revised scheme 2011 was produced before the government for approval.”
The judge further said, “The conditions, now imposed by the IBA is per se unreasonable. The banks are now adopting a discriminatory attitude. They are now making a classification on the basis of admission under the government quota would be given loan. On the other hand, those who were admitted under management quota are now denied loan.”
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Madurai / by R. Sivaraman / TNN / March 01st, 2012