The Hindu : HC directive to State Govt. on CET seats

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 01, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

HC directive to State Govt. on CET seats

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE JUNE 30. The High Court of Karnataka on Monday ordered that 75 per cent of seats in unaided professional colleges should be filled through the Common Entrance Test conducted by the Government.

A Division Bench, comprising Justice R.V.Raveendran and Justice K.L.Manjunath, while passing an interim order on a batch of writ petitions filed by various unaided as well as minority professional colleges, said the interim order was applicable only for admissions for this academic year.

The colleges through their petitions had challenged the validity of the Karnataka Selection of Candidates for Admission to Engineering, Medicine, Dental, Indian System of Medicine and Homeopathy Rules, 2003.

Managements of unaided professional colleges are entitled to fill the rest of the seats by adopting a fair and reasonable method of selection on merit in terms of the decision of the Supreme Court in the TMA Pai Foundation case, the Bench said.

Of the 75 per cent seats to be filled through CET, 25 per cent should be treated as reservation seats (Category I government seats), 40 per cent as Karnataka Seats (Category II government seats) and 10 per cent as Non-Karnataka seats (Category III government seats), it ordered.

As far as unaided minority professional colleges are concerned, 50 per cent of the seats should be filled through CET and the rest by the managements only on merit.

Of the seats to be filled through CET, 25 per cent should be treated as reservation seats and the balance Karnataka seats, the Bench ruled.

It noted that the fee structure should be uniform for all colleges for this academic year, as the procedure prescribed by the rules and the fixation of fee by professional colleges were contradictory.

Though the Supreme Court has held that each college was empowered to fix the fee depending on the infrastructure and other facilities, there is a difference between the fee proposed by the colleges and that fixed by the Fee Regulatory Committee.

The Bench said the annual fee to be prescribed by the professional colleges (applicable to all categories of seats and colleges) should not exceed Rs. 1.9 lakh for medical course, Rs. 1.1 lakh for dental and Rs. 36,000 for engineering courses per annum.

In case of reservation seats (25 per cent), students would have to pay only 20 per cent of the fee and the balance should come through scholarship given by the college concerned. Colleges would be entitled to take note of the cost of such scholarships for working out the uniform fee structure, the Bench added.

The fee indicated for this year was purely an interim measure and was subject to further or final orders on the writ petitions.

Each of the petitioner-colleges should submit a fee structure (with details of infrastructure facilities and other relevant details) to the court within 15 days and also submit such copies to the Government and the Fee Regulatory Committee.

The Fee Regulatory Committee or the Government is entitled to seek clarification or further information from the colleges to arrive at the suggested fee structure.

The committee/Government should examine it and submit its recommendations to the court within 45 days, the Bench directed.

The Bench felt that the contention of the managements that they were empowered to admit students to professional courses might not be correct in the light of the Supreme Court decision.

Whether the interim order was applicable to all professional colleges or only to those who have come before the court, the Bench said, "let others too come before the court."

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