The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Consortium plea to review order on minority seats dismissed

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Saturday, Jul 31, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Consortium plea to review order on minority seats dismissed

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, JULY 30. The Madras High Court today dismissed a petition filed by the consortium of unaided professional colleges seeking to review an earlier order that unaided minority colleges must surrender their management quota seats if they could not be filled with students from among the minority community/language.

Justice D. Murugesan, citing a Supreme Court ruling, held that if such seats could not be filled up, then other candidates could be admitted only on merit, based on entrance examination conducted by Government agencies.

"It would necessarily mean that the unfilled seats should be filled up only from among the candidates who have taken the entrance examination conducted by Government agencies (such as the Tamil Nadu Professional Courses Entrance Examination). As a necessary corollary, it must be only on the basis of a single-window system (SWS)," Mr. Justice Murugesan said.

Finding no merit in the review petition filed by the Consortium of Professional Arts and Science Colleges in Tamil Nadu, the judge said, "the petitioner-association, if at all aggrieved by the direction, could only resort to a writ appeal."

Hearing on writ appeals

In a related development, the First Bench, comprising the Chief Justice B. Subhashan Reddy and Justice S. Ashok Kumar, posted for Monday two writ appeals, one from the All-India Medical and Engineering Colleges Association and the other from the Tamil Nadu Government. Both arise out of the Justice S.S. Subramani Committee report stipulating, among other things, SWS counselling and admissions besides adherence to the rule of reservation in management quota seats.

In its July 16 appeal, the Government said merit-based admissions could be ensured only under the single window system.

It sought a stay on the operation of a single judge ruling dated July 17, wherein he had stayed certain clauses of an order passed by the Permanent Committee, including insistence on the SWS.

Meritorious candidates will be deprived of their chance to get admission in engineering courses and colleges of their choice if the managements are permitted to admit students individually, without the SWS," it said.

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