The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice, returnable on June 23, to the Tamil Nadu government, Anna University and the All India Council for Technical Education on a petition for extending the time for engineering admission in the State from July 31 to August 31.
Senior counsel Kailash Vasudev and counsel Harish Kumar, who appeared before a Vacation Bench of Justices Vikaramajit Sen and Shiva Kirti Singh for the petitioner, Association of Management of Coimbatore Anna University Affiliated Colleges, said the time limit for admission to the affiliated colleges should be extended till August 31, and the courses could begin on September 1.
Mr. Vasudev said that this year, the AICTE wanted the affiliated colleges to get approval for admitting students, and the time for grant of approval was extended to June 10. However, Anna University’s counselling would go on till July 28. So, it would not be possible for the colleges to fill lapsed seats and start the courses from August 1 as per the Supreme Court’s mandate.
He said counselling for over two lakh students would begin to fill government seats only in the third week of June, and the process would be a long-drawn one, leaving the management with a limited time to fill lapsed seats. “If lapsed seats are not filled, it will result in non-utilisation of precious resources and will defeat the entire purpose of running the colleges. Last year, over one lakh lapsed seats could not be filled before the last date of admission,” he said.
