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Judgment
(M.S. Ramachandra Rao, C.J.)
Heard Mr. Paul Kumar Kalai, counsel appearing for the petitioner and Mr. Kohinoor N Bhattacharyya, Government Advocate appearing for the State respondents.
In this Writ Petition, the petitioner assails a notification issued by the Tribal Welfare Department of the Government of Tripura on 27.07.2026.
Under this notification, the State Government formulated a scheme called “Super 100 Scheme” from the financial year 2025-26 to provide structured guidance, coaching and mentoring to students belonging to the Scheduled Tribe community to equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge to compete effectively at the National Level for JEE/NEET/Civil Service Examination (Prelims and mains examination).
The scheme contemplated that such students would be sponsored for pursuing coaching for 12(twelve) months for Civil Service examination, and for 24 months for JEE and NEET examinations and earmarked such sponsorship to 60 students for JEE/NEET and to 40 students for Civil Service examination coaching.
However, in Clause (6) of the said notification, it prescribed a cutoff mark of 60% in Class-IX in subjects of Science, Mathematics for JEE/ NEET and 60% in the Graduation course for aspirants for the Civil Service examination.
The notification further provided that a selection test would be conducted to select the 100 most meritorious students as per merit and they would be called to attend counseling programme on certain due dates which would be advertised on the website of the department.
The Writ petitioner contends that the prescription of the 60% marks to avail this sponsorship for coaching for JEE/NEET and Civil Service examination under the impugned notification is arbitrary, and that since the Writ petitioner has not secured the said percentage of marks in his Bachelor of Arts (Honours Course), he has been deprived of the opportunity to avail coaching for Civil Service examination.
He contends that it is wrong to presume that a person who scored less than 60% in graduation cannot pass competitive examinations, and that there were many cases where similarly situated students had cleared the UPSC examination despite having low percentage in graduation. According to him, putting a complete ban from participating in the scheme to persons like the petitioner is arbitrary and unjust and that candidate should be allowed to participate in the test for being selected in the scheme.
Counsel for the petitioner reiterated the said submissions.
It is undoubtedly true that there is a substantial tribal population in the State of Tripura consisting approximately 31.76% of the total population as per the 2011 census.
To ensure equal educational opportunities and career advancement for tribal students, the Tribal Welfare Department of the Government of Tripura had notified the subject scheme titled “Super 100 Scheme” to sponsor Scheduled Tribe students for coaching to JEE/NEET and the Civil Service examination from the financial year 2025-26. The scheme would provide structured guidance, coaching and mentoring to Scheduled Tribe students and equip them with necessary skills and knowledge to compete effectively at the National Level after passing in these examinations.
Obviously, keeping in mind the financial constraints being faced by the State of Tripura, the State Government proposed to limit the benefit of the scheme only to 100 students, who would be selected through an examination on the basis of merit inter se.
Probably anticipating that if the cutoff mark (such as 60%) in the qualifying examination of Class-IX or graduation is not fixed, it would have to deal with a huge number of applications for sponsorship for coaching for the JEE/NEET and Civil Service examination, it chose to fix the said cutoff.
Matters of this nature fall in the realm of administrative policy. There is nothing unreasonable in the State Government choosing a particular cutoff for deciding who would participate in the selection test for getting the benefit of sponsorship for coaching for the above examinations. It is not within the jurisdiction of this Court to enter into the arena of administrative policy normally, in a situation like the instant case where there does not appear to be anything arbitrary or illogical in fixing the cutoff mark.
This is because the State Government probably felt that people who cross 60% in the qualifying examination would have sufficient intelligence and better chances to get into the professional Engineering and Medical colleges or qualify in the Civil Service examinations. We do not find anything arbitrary in that presumption.
Merely because some people who got less than 60% marks in the qualifying examination might also get selected for the Engineering, Medical courses and in Civil Services, that would not make the scheme notified by the State Government in anyway arbitrary, unreasonable or violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.
For the aforesaid reasons, we do not find any merit in the Writ Petition. It is accordingly dismissed. No costs.
Pending application(s), if any, also stands disposed of.