High Court cancels CMAT, AICTE clueless

Ipsita Sarkar Gupta | shiksha.com

In a shocking move, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday cancelled the Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) conducted by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), as per a news report by Livemint.

One of the gateways for MBA admission, CMAT scores are considered by more than 3,500 business schools.

Earlier this year in April, the Supreme Court declared AICTE as an ‘advisory and recommendatory body’ and that private colleges running University-approved MBA programmes need not take its approval.  Further clipping AICTE’s wings, the new judgement by HC said AICTE does not have the authority to regulate MBA courses, which don’t fall under “technical education” as defined in the AICTE Act.

A judgement was pronounced by a division bench of the Delhi High Court headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana. The petitioners, Federation of Association of Management of Unaided Professional Educational Institutions of India, had appealed to the division bench against the order of the single bench that questioned the powers of the AICTE to conduct the entrance test, informed the Livemint report.

Interestingly, most people Shiksha spoke to including AICTE chairman SS Mantha, were unaware of the judgment.  AICTE helpline is still doling out information on February CMAT.

“I don’t have any information on this so far. With (April) Supreme Court order, this sort of things will happen now,” said Mantha to Livemint. He added, “Unless the apex court order is reversed (via an ordinance), the value of AICTE will be questioned. But it is important to note that in last few years, we have brought huge transparency in the technical education space.”

Speaking on the development, IMS director Alok Bansal opined, “If CMAT is cancelled, people who decided not to take CAT or go for other options will be in serious trouble.”

As the time of filing the story, HC has not yet updated its judgement section. With CMAT getting cancelled, MBA exams will revert back to the earlier format of state level entrances.