The Supreme Court on Monday reserved verdict on Telangana State’s application seeking extension of the time schedule for counselling for admissions to engineering and medicine for 2014-15 till October 31.
A Bench of Justices S.J. Mukhopadahya and S.A. Bobde, reserved verdict after hearing senior counsel Harish Salve, for Telangana and senior counsel P.P. Rao for Andhra Pradesh.
At the outset, the bench made it clear that it could extend the counselling for one month and not beyond August 31. Further the bench also said there could be no question of preference being given to `locals’ in admission to colleges within Telangana.
The Bench told Mr. Salve that those students who took the Eamcet examination were entitled to get admission to any of the colleges of their choice and this benefit could not be denied merely because the State had been divided.
Mr. Salve submitted that Section 95 of the State Reorganisation Act, 2014 provides that the existing admission quotas in all government or private aided or unaided, institutions of higher, technical and medical education under Article 371 D of the Constitution would continue as such for a period of 10 years during which the existing common admission process should continue. He said locals should be given preference in admissions as per Article 371D.
He said “the counselling could not be done due to want of cadre /staff strength.” He pleaded for extending the schedule for admissions till October 31. The Bench then reserved the orders.
Hyderabad Special Correspondent adds:
The SC observation came as a morale booster to the AP government, which had knocked on all doors trying to fault the Telangana government decision on fee reimbursement and its insistence on 1956 as the cut-off year for nativity. The Financial Assistance to Students of Telangana (FAST) scheme proposed by the TS government was vehemently opposed by the AP government.
Telangana government had not taken kindly to the issuance of notification by the AP State Council of Higher Education for Eamcet counselling. Stating that it would not allow APSCHE to take up counselling, the TS government constituted a separate council and gave a call to students from the new State not to attend the APSCHE counselling.
The AP Government welcomed the decision and hoped that TS would honour the SC direction. They said the government should abide by Article 371 D and Presidential Order and the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. It wanted the TS government to jointly take up counselling, keeping in mind the future of 9.50 lakh students.
TRS Government does not see this as a setback. Party’s MP B. Vinod Kumar said: “SC has made only oral observations. Let the final orders come, we will react appropriately”.
He clarified that the TS government had petitioned the apex court to extend the process of Eamcet counselling till October 31 not on the fee imbursement or nativity issue. The government only wanted some time to elaborately plan the implementation of the FAST scheme.
