Another Ruling Against AICTE’s CMAT by Delhi High Court

Common Management Admissions Test (CMAT) administered and conducted by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has recently been cancelled by Delhi High court. A division bench of the High court, led by Chief Justice NV Ramana stated on October 7, 2013 that the AICTE does not hold authority to regulate MBA courses since the body does not fall under 'technical education' as mentioned in the Act of AICTE.
This order given on October 7 was made public on 29 October, 2013. The judge also said that Supreme Court findings indicates that AICTE is not liable in neither the admission procedure nor in subsequent monitoring of management /MBA courses.

It all started when the petitioner, Federation of Association of Management of Unaided Professional Educational Institutions of India (FAMUPEII) had pleaded to the court inquiring about the rights and powers that AICTE hold to conduct the CMAT.

CMAT conducted by AICTE decided of the exam in 2011 however, this national competitive exam was first introduced and conducted in February 2012, instead of various management entrance exam, CMAT being set as a one common exam for all b-schools nationwide, excluding CAT for IIMs.

Up till now CMAT has been conducted twice, about 2,15,000 applicants appeared in for CMAT exam as informed by FAMUPEII’s president, G.P.C Nayar. He also said that the petition was initiated by him not to bring down CMAT but to end AICTE from proclaiming itself as the sole management / MBA entrance test.
Besides, CMAT, XAT, MAT, ATMA etc also exists and they must be continued by not giving only one entrance exam too much significance.

He further added to support his statement that CMAT has mere few takers, since last time about 3000 institutes shut down while many are operating with having only 50% seats. CMAT failed to generate interest in test takers thus in Maharashtra as well the DTE decided upon bringing back the  MAH-CET because of less candidates appearing for  CMAT resulting in vacant seats in management institutes.

On the contrary, Chairman of AICTE, Mr, S.S. Mantha spoke of being unaware of the high court’s ruling. He said so far he does not have any detailed information, however after the April’s Supreme Court order this type of incidence will occur now. And the value of AICTE will be questioned unless the supreme court order is changed(using an ordinance).

He also brought this to light that in last couple of years AICTE brought vast transparency in the technical education System of the country.
Over 600 business schools undertook students on the basis of their CMAT scores, last year. Mr. Mantha keeping his viewpoint told every management entrance exam charges a fee which if summed up comes out to be a huge noticeable amount for an applicant in a single year.