Plea in Delhi HC challenges revised evaluation scheme of entrance test in FTII, SRFTI
Dec 21, 2021
New Delhi [India], December 21 : A plea has been moved in Delhi High Court that challenges the revised evaluation scheme of the Entrance Test in Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), which are two leading film schools of India.
According to the petition, in the new revised scheme of evaluation, whereas there is one written examination (which includes objective and Subjective type Questions), the valuation will be conducted in two parts, wherein a minimum of 85 per cent of students will be removed from the consideration for the selection after evaluation of only Objective Type Questions for the evaluation of courses of peculiar nature in the cinematic realm, which is inherently based on the creative skills and perceptive abilities, unique to every student.
Further, as per the petition, there is no disclosure of any merit list after this shortlisting and the merit list will only be disclosed once students are selected from the remaining 15 per cent.
According to the petition the two institutes are established, funded, and substantially managed by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
The petition states that the said revised scheme of evaluation is challenged for being arbitrary, incompetent, unreliable, unjust, irrational, discriminatory, extremely whimsical, non-transparent actions of the responsible authorities at the respondent offices.
According to the petitioner Naresh Sharma, FTII alumnus, the current method deviates from the past and violates the fundamental rights of thousands of students pursuing careers in relevant fields. If the examination is evaluated with the impugned Scheme of Evaluation, it is not only detrimental to the current and future candidates willing to pursue the peculiar courses of creative Arts but also leaves the future opportunities of the community of budding artists at the whims and fancies of a few people in the administration, the plea stated.
It stated that the Joint Entrance Test is the first stage of the admission process to a variety of courses of creative nature and artistic skills, including Cinematography, Film Direction, Editing, Sound Recording and Audio Engineering, Art Direction, Screen Acting, Electronic Cinematography and Video Editing, at the aforementioned institutes.
Petitioner through Advocates Saju Jakob and Nancy Shah stated that on the one hand, the revised scheme of evaluation has no rational tie to the objectives, and on the other hand, the revised scheme of evaluation will lead to clear discrimination, arbitrariness, favouritism, and lack of transparency, thus hampering the equal protection of opportunities as outlined in article 14 of the Indian constitution.
It is also stated that an artificial screening method has been introduced in the Evaluation by introducing an OMR/Computer-based evaluation system, which is quite unusual for the selection of qualified candidates for the creative skills/cinematic and artistic field.
The petitioner is filing the present petition on behalf of the wider student community in the field of creative arts as all of them being potential candidates are prevented from filing the present petition as they are in the preparation stage of their examination which is going to be held on December 18-19, 2021.
Therefore, the impugned provision in the Information Bulletin of JET 2021 is violative of Articles 14,19 and 21 of the Indian Constitution and thus needs to be quashed, plea read.
