The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Admissions without entrance test illegal: Government counter

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Oct 03, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Admissions without entrance test illegal: Government counter

By Our Staff Reporter

CHENNAI, OCT. 2. The Tamil Nadu Government has submitted in the Madras High Court that lapsed seats in engineering admissions cannot be filled with students who have not appeared for any common entrance examination.

A counter-affidavit was filed by the Higher Education department Secretary, K. Gnanadesikan, on a writ appeal preferred by the president of the All-India Medical and Engineering Colleges Association, T.D. Naidu.

Mr. Naidu sought a direction to the authorities to ``approve the list of students who obtained the eligible percentage of marks in the qualifying examinations and were admitted for the academic year 2004-05.''

None of the students, however, wrote the entrance tests conducted by Anna University or the Consortium of Self-Financing Professional, Arts and Science Colleges.

Opposing such a proposition, the Secretary said, ``the action of the appellant-association amounts to seeking approval for illegal acts committed by them by adopting a method of selection not contemplated in the judgments of the courtseven before the cut-off date.'' He also charged the association with attempting to ``flout and violate the orders of the Supreme Court.''

Apex court ruling

The apex court had laid down only two modes of selection for professional courses — one through entrance examinations conducted by the statutory authority, such as Anna University and the other by a consortium of private unaided colleges approved by the statutory committee to conduct a common entrance test. ``There appears to be no need or necessity for the members of the appellant-association to have resorted to a third mode even before the cut-off date fixed by the High Court,'' he said.

After the university completed counselling, 12,655 seats remained vacant in the State, out of the total of 33,196 government quota seats available under the single-window system. According to the counter, though 52,271 students applied for various courses, 23,000 did not turn up for counselling. Another 1,097 students attended counselling but did not opt for any college.

The official said the appellant-association did not make any effort to tap these eligible students, besides thousands of students who did not accept admission offered by the consortium.

``The large number of vacancies in engineering colleges is not due to a dearth of eligible students among those who have written the common entrance tests, but probably for reasons such as a poor reputation of colleges as perceived by students and parents, high cost of education, lack of infrastructure and lack of employment opportunities.'' The appeal was not maintainable and hence ``deserves to be rejected,'' the official said.

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