Justice B. Pugalendhi of the Madras High Court on Wednesday expressed strong displeasure to the Centre and Anna University over repeated problems created in following the reservation policy for admissions to the M.Tech (Biotechnology) and M.Tech (Computational Biology) courses offered by the university but sponsored by the Department of Biotechnology under the Union Ministry of Science and Technology.
When Advocate General Vijay Narayan, assisted by Special Government Pleader E. Manoharan, complained about the reservations for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) having been applied for admissions to the two courses this year in violation of the State government’s policy against implementing such quota, the judge asked the counsel for the Centre as well as Anna University: “Why are you creating such confusions?”
The A-G told the court that Anna University had initially decided to not offer the two courses at all during the academic year 2020-21 because the State government wanted it to follow its 69% reservation policy in admissions while the Centre insisted on following its 49.5% reservation policy. When the issue was brought to the notice of the court, the university was ordered to make admissions as per the Centre’s policy because the courses were sponsored by it.
However, after the order was passed on February 19, the EWS quota was implemented in admission to the courses though the State Cabinet had taken a decision that it would not be implementing the quota in State government jobs and institutions. Anna University was an institution run by the State government and it could not be allowed to reserve seats under EWS quota in the two courses, he said.
The A-G also pointed out that a common prospectus issued for the two courses itself had stated that the EWS quota would be implemented depending upon the policy of each participating university. Concurring with him, the judge said: “Anna University cannot take a stand against State government policy.” He directed the university counsel to take instructions and explain by Friday the reason behind implementation of EWS quota this year.
