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Apex Court to hear plea on filling lapsed seats

Legal Correspondent

Permission to admit students on the basis of higher secondary exam sought

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear on September 16 a plea to permit self-financing engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu to fill the nearly 11,000 lapsed seats in engineering courses on the basis of higher secondary marks for the academic year 2005-2006.

A three-Judge Bench comprising Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, Justice C.K. Thakker and Justice R.V. Raveendran while posting the matter for hearing on September 16 asked the State counsel, Ayyam Perumal to respond on that day. Earlier counsel, K.K. Mani appearing for Deen Dayal Engineering College, run by the All-India Medical and Engineering Colleges Association president, T.D. Naidu brought to the court's notice that in many colleges only 10 per cent of the seats got filled though they had surrendered all their seats for admission through the single window system.

The petitioner submitted that after Anna University concluded the counselling on August 28, more than 11,000 seats remained vacant. In the applicant college alone 290 of the 330 seats were not filled. It said it would not be viable for institutions similarly placed to sustain themselves unless at least 50 per cent of the seats were allowed to be filled from among students who fulfilled the eligible criterion.

The petitioner pointed out that last year when a similar situation arose in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh with over 20,000 seats falling vacant, the apex court permitted the colleges to fill the seats on the basis of marks obtained by students in the higher secondary examination. As a one-time measure the same order could be passed in respect of the petitioner institution, otherwise it would result in immense hardship to the college.

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