The Tamil Nadu government on Monday opposed in the Supreme Court a plea for extension of time for engineering admission from July 30 to August 31, and starting classes from September 1.
Additional Advocate-General Subramonium Prasad made the submission before a Vacation Bench of Justices Vikramajit Sen and Shiva Kirti Singh.
On June 17, the Bench issued notice to the State government and the All India Council for Technical Education on the plea of the Association of Management of Coimbatore Anna University Affiliated Colleges on the ground that the last date for grant of approval by the AICTE had been shifted from April 10 to June 10.
Mr. Prasad said the schedule already notified would end on July 28, and private colleges had time to admit students till August 15, even after the commencement of courses from August 1. Since the schedule had already been fixed by the Supreme Court, no further time needed to be given to the colleges for admission under the management quota.
Lapsed seats
However, senior counsel Kailash Vasudev and counsel Harish Kumar, who appeared for the Association, said that unless the vacancies were notified by the State at the end of counselling, no admission could be made to fill lapsed seats. The colleges were asking for time extension by just 15 days.
Mr. Vasudev said that this year, the AICTE wanted affiliated colleges to get approval for admitting students, and the time for grant of approval had been extended till June 10. “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 lakh lapsed seats could not be filled before the last date of admission.”
The Bench asked the State to file an affidavit in one week and the Association to file a rejoinder thereafter, and scheduled further hearing for July 7.
