CHENNAI: A writ petition alleging irregularities in admission to B.Ed. courses in Government, aided and self-financing colleges has been filed in the Madras High Court.

Seeking direction to the education authorities to hold counselling for admissions, T. Meena of Salem submitted that these institutions were resorting to "all sorts of tactics" to subvert the law laid down by the Supreme Court. Most of the colleges had already filled all available seats.

Justice P.D. Dinakaran admitted the petition and ordered notices to the Higher Education Department and the Director of Collegiate Education, returnable in a week.

The petitioner said she had obtained 70 out of 100 marks in the entrance examination conducted on July 10. As per the Government notification, the colleges were to issue application forms from July 10 to 29 charging a fee of Rs. 30, and the admissions effected on the basis of marks obtained in the entrance examination and the under-graduate degree.

Ms. Meena said as per the Supreme Court's order in the T.M.A. Pai Foundation Case, a State agency must conduct counselling for Government-allotted seats in private colleges also. According to her, the authorities did not conduct counselling for seats in Government colleges and aided as well as recognised self-financing institutions, resulting in less meritorious students getting admissions. Ms. Meena said when she sent Rs. 30 each to colleges requesting them to send application forms, one college replied saying the admissions were over, while another said the application fee was Rs. 300. An aided institution at Gandhigram rejected her plea on the ground that they would accept the demand draft drawn on State Bank of India and not Indian Overseas Bank

Though the last date for issuing and receiving applications was July 29, St. Joseph Women's College at Jolarpet informed her in writing on July 16 that admissions had been completed. "This fact would clearly establish that self-financing colleges have already sold their Government quota as well as management quota seats, and that the entire process of entrance examination and selection is nothing but an eyewash," she said.

Maintaining that unless counselling was done there was no guarantee that meritorious students would get admission, she sought stay on B.Ed. admissions for the current academic year and a direction to the State Government to conduct counselling for the course forthwith.

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