No students were admitted to Anna University under the 10 per cent Economically Weaker Section (EWS) quota for Centrally-sponsored courses, namely MTech biotechnology and MTech computational biology, the university told the Madras High Court on Friday.
Though the Central government’s Department of Biotechnology sent a merit list for allotment under the EWS quota by creating additional seats, “we have not provided admission under the quota,” said Vijaya Kumar, the university’s counsel, a day after the court said Anna University was creating “unnecessary confusion” in admission to the two Centrally-sponsored courses.
The petitioner’s counsel, A Saravanan, alleged the EWS quota has been implemented by at least three State universities for admission to Centrally-sponsored courses. The issue pertains to a batch of pleas moved by students challenging the university’s decision to suspend the courses for the 2020-21 academic year following confusion over the reservation policy.
Since the courses were sponsored by the Centre, it wanted the university to follow its 49.5 per cent reservation policy in admission. But since the university falls under the State, the State government wanted it to follow the 69 per cent reservation policy. On February 19, the court directed the university to admit students as per the norms of the Central government as the courses are wholly sponsored by the Centre.
It further directed the AICTE to coordinate with the university to continue the courses for this academic year without any break. The matter was again taken up for hearing on March 10 since the State told the court the EWS quota is being implemented in the admission, in violation of the court order. Pulling up the university, the court observed that the university cannot take a stand against the policy of the State.
