The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Apex court dismisses plea against filling vacant seats

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 11, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Apex court dismisses plea against filling vacant seats

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, FEB. 10. The Supreme Court today dismissed the Tamil Nadu Government's petitions seeking review of an order permitting self-financing engineering colleges to fill 18,000 vacant seats on the basis of marks obtained by students in the higher secondary examination.

A Bench consisting of Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice P.P. Naolekar dismissed the review petition in the judge's chambers observing that it had no merit. The Tamil Nadu Self-Financing Engineering Colleges Association (TNSFECA), an association in Andhra Pradesh and others filed petitions seeking a direction to permit the colleges to fill the unfilled seats on the basis of marks in the qualifying examination, irrespective of whether the students took the entrance tests conducted by the State or by an association of colleges.

The TNSFECA submitted that in 2003-2004, over 22,000 seats remained vacant because of the admission norms of the State Government. In 2004-2005 over 18,000 seats were vacant. The vacancy would have financial repercussions for four years. A similar plea was made by colleges in Andhra Pradesh. An apex court Bench, in a common order on November 29, 2004, said it appeared that in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, a number of seats under the government and management quotas remained unfilled even after admissions were made on the basis of a list prepared with candidates who qualified in the entrance examination conducted by the State and a consortium of colleges. If permission as sought in the applications was not granted, these seats would go waste.

`No precedent'

Making it clear that this order should not be treated as a precedent, the Bench permitted the engineering colleges in the two States to fill within a week the unfilled seats, whether under the management or government quota, with eligible candidates though they might not have taken either of the entrance examinations. Any higher standard fixed by the State Governments would be complied with while granting admission, the Bench said.

Contending that this order would result in dilution of standards, the Tamil Nadu Government pleaded for a review.

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