KOCHI: Mounting criticism of the lapses in its admission system has forced the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) to put on hold a decision on five more students who got admission to the B.Tech programmes despite failing to meet the norms.

Irregularities have been found in the admission of five students into the B.Tech (Instrumentation) course in 2005. Two students, who have already taken the first semester examination, had not scored the stipulated marks for admission.

The incident has added fuel to the ongoing controversy over a girl who got admission to a course even without qualifying the eligibility test.

According to the university rules, a student enrolling for the B.Tech Instrumentation course should have a total of 60 per cent marks in physics, chemistry and mathematics.

The candidate should also score 55 per cent marks in mathematics.

The university authorities admitted two students who had not scored a total of 60 per cent marks in these subjects.

During the counselling for admission, the authorities failed to spot that both of them had not scored the marks in the qualifying examination.

In three other cases, students belonging to backward communities got admission despite not having the stipulated marks in the qualifying examination.

Sources said that the university authorities approved the admission quoting a Government order saying that the students belonging to the backward communities needed to score only pass marks for getting admission into the B.Tech programme. But whether the decision would pass legal scrutiny was still unclear especially because the university had laid down its own rules for admission into various engineering programmes.

A decision on all these cases had been put on the backburner with reports suggesting that top university officials did not want to invite further criticism for the lapses in the admission system.

The two students who did not score the minimum marks had already informed the authorities that they had not done anything wrong in securing the admission.

They have told the authorities that the officials had admitted them to the course after verifying the documents.

The academic council, which discussed the issue, recommended that the students could be shifted to some other course in view of the latest development.

It also suggested that they could be allowed entry to a course of their choice where the minimum required marks for the combine of physics, mathematics and chemistry is less than 60 per cent.

Sources said that top officials of the university did not want to take a decision on their own fearing setbacks in the wake of the admission scam.

A blame game was already on in the university with various sections related to the admission and examination system trying hard to get a clean chit in the admission scam.

Sources said that the withdrawal of suspension of seven employees in connection with the scam had virtually halted the internal inquiry into the lapses in admission and examination wings of Cusat.

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