Case on engineering admissions for Division Bench

By Our Legal Correspondent

HYDERABAD, AUG. 3. The controversy relating to the constitutional validity of the GO MS 550, which regulates admissions into engineering courses, was referred to a Division Bench by Mr. Justice B. Sudershan Reddy of the A. P. High Court on Friday.

Two writ petitions were filed by some students challenging the GO which adopts the `sliding rule' for engineering admissions. As per this GO, a reserved category student, who gets a seat in the open competition, will be entitled to change his institution and opt for a different branch at the time of seats being offered to that reserved category and the vacancy arising from this change in option will have to be filled by a student from the same reserved category.

The petitioners contended that the GO should not have been issued after the application forms were submitted and such a GO should not have been issued on July 30 when the admission process was to commence, contrary to existing rules and the Division Bench judgment.

The petitioner students argued that such sliding rule may be valid for MBBS course where there was no specialisation but not for courses like engineering where different branches were offered from first year itself. The judge who referred the matter to a Division Bench directed the Commissioner, Technical Education, to take steps to inform the students who came for counselling about the cases pending adjudication.

Law colleges' affiliation

Mr. Justice B. Sudershan Reddy of the High Court on Friday directed the Bar Council of India to reconsider the case of Pendekanti Law college, Hyderabad, and V. R. College of Law, Nellore, for granting approval of affiliation and intimate the decision to the convener, LAWCET-2001 so that students could be allotted to these colleges in the ensuing counselling for admission into the first year LLB course. The judge was disposing of the writ petitions filed by the colleges complaining that the committee of the Bar Council of India concerned did not properly appreciate the relevant facts before deciding not to recommend for approval of affiliation.

The petitioner colleges contended that though the decision was taken long ago, they were not informed about it till the last minute affecting admissions. The judge severely pulled up the Bar Council of India for its casual attitude.

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