by Chitra Weerarathne
The Court of Appeal yesterday dismissed a writ application filed against the University Grants Commission by twenty eight Advanced Level qualified students, who sat the examination in August 2001. Notice on the UGC was refused.

These students had alleged that the ‘Z-score’ system of standardisation of the marks, was introduced subsequent to the time period they completed their syllabus and that it was unfair to select them for University admission, based on the newly introduced ‘z-score’ method.

The petitioner had requested the Court of Appeal to issue a Writ of Certiorari to quash the determination of the UGC, to select students to the Universities, from those who sat the G.C.E. Advanced Level examination in August 2001, based on the ‘Z-Score’ method.

The petitioner students had also requested the court to prohibit the Universities from registering the students already selected under the ‘Z-score’ method for the academic year 2002-2003.

The petition was dismissed.

Hemasiri Panditharatne appeared for the students, while Shibly Aziz P.C. appeared for the respondent University Grants Commission.

The bench comprised Justice K. Sriparan and Justice Nimal Gamini Amaratunga.