New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday permitted private self-financing engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu to fill 16,800 lapsed seats for 2006-2007 on the basis of higher secondary examination marks.

A Bench of Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, Justice C.K. Thakker and Justice P.K. Balasubramanyan passed this order on an application filed by the Consortium of Self-Financing Professional, Arts and Science Colleges in Tamil Nadu.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior counsel U.R. Lalit said over 16,800 seats remained vacant at the end of counselling and after two common entrance tests, one conducted by the State and the other by the Consortium.

Counsel V.G. Pragasam appearing for Tamil Nadu submitted that the State entered into an agreement with the colleges for admission in the ratio of 65:35 and permission for admission on the basis of higher secondary marks could be granted if the colleges adhered to the agreement.

The petitioner submitted that 153 colleges were consortium members and so far no student who had taken the CET held either by the State or the consortium was available.

Fear of irreparable loss

It might be necessary to admit students on the basis of marks obtained in the Plus Two examination conducted by the CBSE or State Boards.

It said if the lapsed seats remained vacant for four years it would cause irreparable loss to the colleges.

The Bench said that it would be open to the State Government to send to the colleges a list of candidates, who took the CET, conducted by the State or the consortium, and had not got admission.

This exercise should be completed within a week and if the State Government had fixed higher standards, they would have to be complied with before granting admission.

All remaining vacant seats could be filled on the basis of marks obtained in examination conducted by the CBSE or other Boards.

The directions would be applicable for 2006-2007, it said.

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