MUMBAI: The Bombay high court in an interim order on Tuesday allowed a Pune college to conduct a separate common entrance test for Muslim students to fill up minority quota seats for its post-graduate Masters in dental surgery course.

A division bench of Justices Anoop Mohta and Amjad Sayed dismissed the Pravesh Niyantran Samiti’s claims that the other 231 minority institutions will make similar demands. The court stayed the samiti’s order refusing permission to M A Rangoonwala College of Dental Sciences & Research Centre to conduct a separate CET for the minority quota seats and allowed the college to go ahead with its plans to hold the test on February 9.

“The purpose and object of such examination is to show the transparency and to select the meritorious students among the minority,” the judges said and referred to orders of the Supreme Court and high court that recognize the right of minority institutions to run their colleges. The court also pointed out that since 2007 the college had been given permission to have a separate CET and there was no reason to take such a “drastic step” this year in denying it to them for the 2014-15 academic year.

“There is nothing on record to show that the procedure which the (college) has adopted and/or in such permission to conduct examination, in any way is unacceptable, unfair, exploitative, not transparent or would affect the rights of minority institutions and the students. The freedom so given to the minority institution to conduct their course by following the due procedure of law and by taking note of the principle so laid down in (SC) judgments, just cannot be curtailed at this stage in such fashion,” the judges said.

The court added that litigations were pending in the apex court on the issue of a separate CET as well as a review petition by the Medical Council of India for a common CET. The state had challenged earlier orders on the issue but the apex court had not stayed such directions for a separate CET.

Rangoonwala college had been holding a separate CET from 2007 but was barred from doing so this year by the samiti. The samiti had claimed that it had rejected the application this year as it was against SC judgments. It also said there were 231 other minority institutions across Maharashtra and each of them may now make demands to conduct a separate CET for minority students to fill seats in the minority quota.