A division bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court, Jabalpur presided by acting chief justice Sushil Harkoli and Justice Alok Aradhe on Monday granted interim relief to multiple technical professional colleges. The bench presided by acting chief justice Sushil Harkoli and justice Alok Aradhe directed the State Technical Education Department to provisionally include their AICTE approved additional seats in the ongoing counselling process, the next phase of which is scheduled from September 10, 2012. This order came on petitions filed by multiple private unaided colleges aggrieved by the cut-off date of July 31 fixed by the DTE (department of technical education) regarding the approvals of additional seats of various PG and undergraduate courses.
The counselling for admissions to various technical professional courses is in progress conducted by the DTE, the last phase of which is scheduled to commence from September 10, 2012. However by virtue of Rule 4 of Admission Rules framed by State Government, it had been stipulated that only those additionally approved seats of those colleges would be included in the counselling process which are granted approval latest by July 31, 2012 by the AICTE. The subsequently AICTE approved seats were therefore barred from being included in the counselling by the government, which became a grievance for multiple colleges whose approvals were delayed by the AICTE and issued between 16 and 18 August 2012. All these 4-5 colleges had therefore approached the High Court challenging the constitutionality of the applicable rule, which came up for hearing today.
Counsel for the petitioner contended that the Rule 4 of Admission Rules is perse unconstitutional as it debars AICTE approved seats from being included in counselling process, more so when the counselling process has not yet concluded and the last phase is yet to commence. Gupta contended when AICTE has given approval for 2012-13 session, state government is nobody to fix the cut-off date.
{{/usCountry}}Counsel for the petitioner contended that the Rule 4 of Admission Rules is perse unconstitutional as it debars AICTE approved seats from being included in counselling process, more so when the counselling process has not yet concluded and the last phase is yet to commence. Gupta contended when AICTE has given approval for 2012-13 session, state government is nobody to fix the cut-off date.
{{/usCountry}}Issuing notice to all concerned, the High Court has directed the DTE, AICTE, RGPV to file their respective replies within a period of two weeks. This order will lead to inclusion of around 400 seats of various graduate and PG courses in the ongoing counselling process.