Nagpur: Private engineering colleges battling for survival had their hopes dashed on Friday when Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court dismissed their plea praying for an additional round under centralized admissions process (CAP) for engineering courses in view of huge vacancies.
Justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Zaka Haq had raised colleges’ hopes on Tuesday when they told the government “it is open to them to conduct additional round in the meanwhile”. However, government strongly on Friday strongly opposed the plea of the petitioner Vidarbha Youth Welfare Society’s for additional round made though counsel Ranjit Bhuibhar.
Nahush Khubalkar was roped in as special counsel for Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) and State Common Entrance Cell. He contended that additional round would be in violation of Supreme Court directives of completing all admissions before August 14. It would be impossible to complete the new round before apex court mandated deadline.
Citing contents from respondents’ affidavit, he said conditions were well specified in the brochure published by DTE that clearly mentioned there would be three CAP rounds followed by the last round for filling up seats in government and aided colleges. He pointed out the petitioner society had approached the court very late, when entire process was over. He added all colleges were permitted to fill seats at their own level till last date of admissions and, therefore, there was no injustice meted out to them, as claimed.
Assistant government pleader Nivedita Mehta informed the court that the petitioner moved HC after it allowed private pharmacy colleges to participate in fourth round of admissions, which was meant for government and aided colleges. The decision benefited 369 colleges and also thousands of students who were deprived of admissions.
The petitioner society runs two colleges ‘Professor Ram Meghe Institute Of Technology and Research’ and ‘Professor Ram Meghe College Of Engineering and Management’, both at Badnera in Amravati that were also added as petitioners. It contended that due to last CAP round held by DTE many of its admitted students preferred government-run colleges and these seats would remain vacant for four years. They argued that if their demand for additional round couldn’t be met, those who migrated to government colleges should be asked to return before August 14.
