Authority of AICTE’s CMAT Overruled by Delhi High Court

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has been forced to scrap its CMAT (Common Management Admissions Test) after a hearing by the Delhi High Court which was originally intended to question the council’s efforts to command the entire entrance exam market in India.

AICTE had hopes of making its CMAT – which was used by 600 business schools last year to admit students on the basis of their scores – the only MBA entrance exam besides the CAT (Common Admissions Test). The high court claimed however that AICTE had no authority to make the exam compulsory, nor to regulate MBA courses which do not fall under ‘technical education’ as outlined in the 1987 AICTE Act.

The petitioner, GPC Nayer, conveyed that the aim of the hearing was not to devalue the CMAT but rather to stop AICTE declaring that the CMAT is only MBA entrance exam on offer. Nayer, president of The Federation of Association of Management of Unaided Professional Educational Institutions of India (FAMUPEII), a Kerala-based body, said “there are other exams like XAT, MAT, ATMA. All the exams should be allowed to coexist; one entrance exam should not be given undue importance.”

AICTE’s CMAT has no legal power over the MBA admissions process of any professional school with university affiliations

It was the second court ruling this year to erode the AICTE’s status India’s regulator of business education. The first, held by India’s Supreme Court in April, ruled that AICTE was powerless to control or regulate professional colleges affiliated to universities. The high court reiterated the ruling this month stating “...it is clear from the above said findings of the Supreme Court that the AICTE has no role to play either in the admission process or in subsequent monitoring of the said course.”

The CMAT, although only coming into existence last year, has been sat by approximately 215,000 students, which is over half the amount of students who get admitted into India’s business schools every year. Nayar says that with the emergence of the CMAT, rival testing bodies have been struggling. “Some 3000 institutes have closed down and many are functioning with 50% seats.” The high court order to cancel AICTE’s CMAT on the grounds that the council has no legal right to vet the MBA admissions process was given on the 7th October and made public on Tuesday.