VTU allots PGCET ranks without awaiting marks cards

  Although the brochure for MBA-PGCET clearly states that candidates who fail to submit their final-year marks cards by the stipulated date will be considered 'ineligible', the VTU which conducted the test for 11 universities of the State assigned ranks to more than 6,800 candidates who did not follow the rule.

Consequently, many eligible candidates saw their rankings plummet. Praneeta K Vyshnav, who graduated in Commerce from NMKRV College, had fulfilled all the criteria for admission. Yet, her ranking dipped massively as 3,065 candidates whose results were awaited got better rankings. Upset over a low rank (8,950 out of more 17,500 candidates), she moved a writ petition to the HC and had ranking reduced to 5,885 on Friday.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, she said: “Rule No 6 in the brochure clearly states that candidates whose final-year marks are not available by July 31 will be considered ‘not eligible.’ Nonetheless, almost all the candidates who appeared for the PGCET got ranks even though many of them did not submit their marks cards. Sensing something amiss, I decided to approach the court.”

The Central Post Graduate Admission Committee (CPAC) and the VTU were made respondents in the petition. The last date of receiving the applications was July 10 and the test was scheduled on July 11. According to her, she was apprehensive of securing admission in a good college because of her low rank. Hence she sought a direction from the court to permit her to intercept the counselling.

Justice S Abdul Nazir, on hearing the matter, fixed the petitioner’s ranking to 5885, which is 3065 ranks above the earlier VTU-awarded rank. The court has also ruled that the petitioner was entitled to select the college as per the rank. It added that the seat should be kept vacant until further orders. The matter is listed on Monday for final disposal.

As per the brochure, the merit list consists of candidates based solely on marks in the MBA PGCET-2010. Since absence of negative marks in the test will result in a number of candidates getting equal score, students scoring higher marks in the qualifying examination were to get better ranking. Further, if the merit of two or more candidates is equal after considering their score in the qualifying examinations, elder students were to be placed higher.

Denying the violation of any rules, VTU Registrar Prof KVA Balaji maintained that candidates whose final-year results were not announced were categorised as “Result Awaited” (RA) and hence were required to submit the marks cards on the day of counselling.

“They are not ineligible as such. We will not allot them seats if they fail to submit the marks cards on the day of counselling. Instead, candidates ranked below them would be given their seats,” he told this newspaper.

Prof Balaji also said that although they would abide the court order, they would file a writ petition once the final ruling came.