BMS Trust served with notice on 'seat blocking'

The BMS Educational Trust in Bengaluru has been served with a notice by the Admission Overseeing Committee (AOC) over the suspected seat-blocking during admission to its engineering colleges. The notice by Justice B Manohar, a retired High Court judge and chairperson of the AOC was issued following several complaints received from the public.

The notice, accessed by DH is issued on April 7 to the member secretary of the BMS Educational Trust.

According to the initial observation by the AOC, the BMS College of Engineering (BMSCE) and BMS Institute of Technology (BMSIT) have been allegedly involved in the suspected seat blocking.

The AOC in its notice also referred to the communication sent by the Consortium of Medical Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (Comed-K) which stated, “In both the institutions the number of not reported cases is alarmingly high over the last three years in prime branches. Before counseling this year, these institutions were cautioned about this observation of the previous two years and despite the same, the same pattern is observed this year also. It is around 55% in BMSCE and 44% in BMSIT this year."

Documents available with DH showed that under Comed-K this year, in BMSCE out of the 277 allotted seats, 152 candidates did not report and the numbers were 161 and 92 during the previous academic year. Similarly, in BMSIT, this year, out of the 180 allotted seats, as many as 79 students did not report to the college for admission.

“On verification of allotment made by the KEA, 18 students selected for the prime branches were not reported and seven students have canceled the admissions after the casual round in respect of BMSCE and six students did not report and one student canceled the admission at BMSIT,” the notice said.

The committee has observed that these unreported candidates seats have been filled by the management under the management seats without informing the selecting authorities and without following the merit and transparency.

"There is a lot of demand for the engineering seats in and around Bengaluru city. It is very difficult to believe that such a number if students selected by the selecting authorities to the prime branches of engineering were not reported to the colleges. The records produced by Comed-K clearly disclosed that the college authorities demanding for refund of the fee paid by the unreported students," the notice says.

Response by the Trust

Seeking clarification on the issue DH reached out to donor trustee Dr Ragini Narayan. She asked to get in touch with Dr Murali Krishna, Director of the College. Dr Krishna clarified that he has nothing to do with the admission procedure. The Admission Committee Chairperson of the Trust Dayanand Pai was not available for comments after repeated calls and text messages.

However, M Madan Gopal, IAS (retired) and Trustee at BMS Educational Trust and also a member of the admission committee said, "We cannot fill the surrendered seats from CET. If we have done, then it is illegal. The Comed-K seats will be surrendered every year and those seats will be filled at the management level. If there are any allegations of irregularities, let there be an inquiry conducted.”