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(b) Even the allotment of marks in the Written Examination, Group Tasks and Interview, are not done in a straight, plain and simple Manner. The marks are converted at every stage into a system known as "Stanine Grading" and the selection of candidates finally depends upon the grade obtained by them, in the final tally, which according to the unselected candidates failed the test of transparency in the matter of selection.
(c) As a minority educational Institution claiming protection under Article 30 of the Constitution, the Institution was obligated to admit a predominant number of students belonging to the State of Tamilnadu, though a Sprinkling of such students from other States could also be admitted. On the contrary, the Institution actually admitted only 5 candidates belonging to the Christian minority community from the State of Tamilnadu, thereby failing the test of "State as the unit" for determining the minority status of the Institution .

27. To see if there was distortion of the results of the Written Examination and the results of the Qualifying Examination, on account of allotment of 40% marks for Interview, it is necessary to look at the admission procedure adopted by the Institution. According to the Institution, the process of admission is based on determining academic merit, by an All India Entrance Test, followed by a process of Test and Interview, including objective Tasks (Group Tasks and Individual Tasks). The Written Test covers five papers, one each on Biology, Physics, Chemistry, General Ability and Speed and Accuracy. Persons who had scored above 96 percentile are awarded Grade-A, persons who had scored above 89 percentile but below 96 are awarded Grade-B+, persons who had scored above 77 percentile are awarded Grade-B and those who had scored above 60 percentile are awarded Grade-C+. Those who had scored above 40 percentile are awarded Grade-C and those who scored between 23 to 40 percentile and between 11 to 23 percentile are awarded Grades C- and D and so on. Thus, the entire group of students who participate in the admission procedure, are divided into Nine Bands, based on the normalisation of the mark curve known as STANINE (Standard Nine System). This Stanine Grade is given for each of the five subjects, with the Grades A, B+, B, C+, C, C-, D, F and U, being converted into numerical scores of 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9. Thereafter the numerical scores in all the five papers are totalled and again converted into a Final Grade called Final Composite Grade or Preliminary Test Average (PTA).

II. CONVERSION OF MARKS INTO A GRADING SYSTEM OFFENDING THE TEST OF TRANSPARENCY:

35. As stated in paragraphs 27, 28 and 29 above, the Institution has adopted a unique procedure of converting the marks at every stage into a system of grading called Stanine Grading. The process of admission is based on determining academic merit, by an All India Entrance Test, followed by a process of Test and Interview, including objective Tasks (Group Tasks and Individual Tasks).

36. The above procedure according to the unselected candidates, is complicated, ununderstandable and hence lacks transparency. But I am of the considered view that all that is difficult to understand, cannot be termed as non-transparent. The benefits of adopting the Stanine procedure had been furnished by the Department of Bio-Statistics of the Institution, 36 years ago, in a paper published in the British Journal of Medical Education in September, 1971, a portion of which is extracted above. The practise of selecting students on the basis of an Entrance Examination and interview was introduced long ago by the Petitioner Institution, even before it was conceived by others. As a matter of fact, the petitioner Institution claims to be the first ever college in the country to have adopted a system of holding an entrance examination and interview for selection of students for admission, right from the year 1948. The Grading System has not been invented by the Institution, in the recent past, to bye-pass merit. They have been using this grading system for several decades (more than 50 years). It has been evolved by Specialists in the field and hence it cannot be very lightly set at naught. What a court should and should not do in such cases is well spelt out by Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer in Dr. Jagadish Saran v. Union of India in the following words: