Admission extension plea: SC seeks details of vacant engg seats

The Supreme Court on Thursday told the Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association that it would consider their plea for extension of admission deadline only if they are able furnish exact number of students, who gave up their seats to get admission in medical colleges.

“We would not allow your plea as there is a flaw because people pay money to get admission in such seats. If you can't get the exact number of students from engineering colleges, who opted for medical course, we would not consider your plea,” a bench of Justices P C Ghose and R K Agrawal told senior advocate Kapil Sibal.Sibal, along with advocate Rohit Bhat, representing the association of 151 colleges of Karnataka, submitted that as many as 5,300 students appeared for both engineering and medical colleges entrance test, and as per the information available from 26 colleges, 130 seats fell vacant after the students preferred the medical course.

The association urged the court to extend the admission deadline of August 15 to September 30 in view of re-examination of All India Pre-Medical and Pre-Dental Test (AIPMT) on July 25. They claimed many seats in engineering colleges fell vacant as students with Physics, Chemistry, Maths and Biology subjects preferred admission to medical colleges. On June 15, the SC had scrapped the AIPMT held on May 3 due to irregularities and paper leakage.

 Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, representing the All India Council for Technical Education, opposed their plea, contending the apex court had through earlier judgments fixed the academic schedule with great difficulty. “The court's indulgence would be misused by these colleges as who is going to monitor who got admission where,” he said, adding every year 4,000 to 5,000 engineering seats remained vacant. The court gave association time to furnish the number of students preferring medical to engineering.

In its petition, the association of 151 unaided private engineering colleges claimed students who were otherwise unable to gain entry into medical colleges would have got admission into engineering colleges. However, by retaking the AIPMT, if eligible, these students would now stand a chance of gaining admission into medical colleges and would vacate the engineering seats held by them.

The AICTE contended that very few students opted for both medical and engineering subjects.