Leaving numerous engineering course aspirants in the lurch, the Supreme Court on Thursday refused a plea by Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education to extend the deadline to complete the miscellaneous/residual phase of counselling and admissions to September 30, 2014.
A Bench led by S.J. Mukhopadhaya while declining to give relief, said enough time was given to complete the counselling. . The Council conducts the admissions and counselling exercise for both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The Bench had originally, in an order dated August 11, 2014, extended the deadline to August 31, 2014 taking into consideration the difficulties faced by authorities after the bifurcation of the State.
The Council, however, moved an application requesting additional time to complete the counselling. “Permit the applicant to complete the residual/miscellaneous phase of category A and category B counselling and admissions in both states on or before September 30, 2014,” the application sought.
It sought the court's intervention to direct both States to “co-operate with the exercise to be undertaken by the applicant (Council) in the common process of counselling and admissions”.
In an attempt to buttress its request for more time, the Council said allotment orders have already been issued to 1.17 lakh students who participated in the web counselling in both States on August 30. It said major part of counselling has been completed and the work left is of a “miscellaneous nature but indispensable”. The Council denied it was responsible for any delay in completing the admission phases and maintained it had “scrupulously adhered to the schedule fixed by the court and completed the major portion of the counselling and admissions in one single breath by August 31, 2014”.
Meanwhile, nearly 3,000 students who were not allotted seats despite participating in the first phase of counselling and also nearly 10,000 students who failed to report on time at the allotted college are now in a dilemma with all the roads to colleges likely to be closed for them.
