Pvt quota: Admission panel for single entrance to engg courses

Admission overseeing committee for professional courses, headed by retired High Court judge Justice B Manohar, has recommended for single entrance test for admission to engineering courses in state under private quota seats.

Currently apart from conducting Common Entrance Test (CET) to fill seats under government quota and seats at government engineering colleges, three other entrance tests are being conducted by private college managements to fill seats under private quota.

Justice B Manohar, in his report on February 3, had stated, "It has come the notice of this committee that apart from the state government, three other associations are conducting entrance tests separately for selection of students for BE courses in the state."

Quoting the Supreme Court judgement in TMA Pai Foundation case and subsequent judgement reported in PA Inamdar Vs state of Maharashtra, Justice Manohar said, "All the institutions imparting same or similar professional education can join together for holding common entrance test and centralised counseling."

Apart from CET (by govt), three associations of private colleges are conducting entrance tests - Consortium of Medical Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK), Karnataka Religious and Linguistic Minority Professional Colleges Association (KRLMPCA) and Association of Minority Professional Colleges in Karnataka (AMPCK).

Interestingly, Association of Minority Professional Colleges in Karnataka conducts entrance test for admission to only three engineering colleges in state while KRLMPCA has 14 colleges under it.

However, COMEDK authorities say, they have no issues in conducting single entrance test, if other two associations come forward for the same. Dr S Kumar, executive secretary, COMEDK said, "We have no issues to conduct single entrance test if other two associations agree."

Meanwhile, Shafi Ahmed, secretary, KRLMPCA, said, "We are conducting entrance test for the last 15 years and we cannot club with COMEDK as the seat matrix are different."