The impasse over the engineering admissions was cleared by the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) with the decision to start the first phase of admission process – certificate verification from August 7 across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The notification will be issued on July 30.
The decision was taken by the Admissions Committee where the representatives of Telangana were conspicuous by their absence.
The meeting held at the APSCHE decided to kick-start the process in view of the Supreme Court’s observation that it had not objected to the admission process when the Telangana Government approached it seeking extension of admission deadline to October 2.
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The APSCHE Chairman, L. Venugopal Reddy, told reporters that dates of web counselling and the issue of fee reimbursement could be decided later as the certificate verification process would take at least 15 to 18 days.
He admitted the absence of Telangana officials at the meeting but said the quorum was there to take a decision.
Meanwhile, the Telangana Secretary for Higher Education, Vikas Raj, dashed off a letter to the APSCHE stating that the matter was ‘sub-judice’ and dates cannot be announced.
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Mr. Raj in his letter argued that since the issue is in the Supreme Court and coming up for hearing, the APSCHE should not take a decision. He accused the APSCHE of taking unilateral actions inspite of being aware of the legal aspects.
Mr. Raj also argued that as per the Section 95 of the A.P. Reorganisation Act, common admissions have to be taken with mutual consent.