The High Court (HC) yesterday declared illegal the Dhaka University's (DU) new admission rules that disqualify madrasa students for admission to the university's seven departments.
An HC bench of justices Mir Hasmat Ali and Shamim Hasnain, however, observed that the Madrasa Education Board should consider revising its syllabus to meet the prerequisites for admission to general academic courses.
The lawyers concerned said following the HC verdict, there is no legal bar now for madrasa students having passed Aleem exams to getting admitted to the university's seven departments.
The HC verdict came following a writ petition filed by five DU admission seekers including Ibrahim Khalkil, who secured GPA-5 in Aleem exams under the Madrasa Education Board.
Shahdeen Malik, counsel for the DU authorities, said he was yet to get any instructions from his clients on whether an appeal would be filed with the Supreme Court (SC) against the HC verdict.
He, however, said if an appeal is filed and the Appellate Division stays the verdict, the madrasa students would not be able to get admitted to the seven DU departments.
The HC in its judgment said the Dhaka University Ordinance 1973 does not empower the academic committees of its departments to make such a decision of disqualifying the admission seekers who came out successful in the admission tests from admission to the university.
The court said the government's decision to give Aleem equal status to the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) cannot be overridden by a mere departmental decision and the DU laws cannot be violated by any department, which is under the laws.
Barristers Abdur Razzaq and Belayet Hossain appeared for the petitioners.
Seven departments -- Economics, English, Bangla, Mass Communications and Journalism, International Relations, Women and Gender Studies, and Linguistics -- under the arts and social science faculties introduced new prerequisites for admissions in the departments for academic session 2008-09, blocking madrasa students from getting admitted to the departments.
As per the new prerequisites, an admission seeker must complete English and Bangla courses of 200 marks each at the HSC or equivalent level to be eligible for admission to the departments of International Relations, Women and Gender Studies, Mass Communication and Journalism, and Linguistics.
Students seeking admission to Bangla and English departments must complete a course of 200 marks in the relevant subject at the HSC or equivalent level.
The Department of Economics set a new prerequisite of studying a course of 200 marks in economics, math, or statistics, saying that courses in home economics and Islamic economics would not be considered equivalent to those.
Madrasa students study English and Bangla courses of 100 marks each, and Islamic economics instead of general economics at the HSC level.