The Karnataka High Court on Monday, September 12, issued notices to the state government, Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), Admission Overseeing Committee and Consortium of Medical and Dental Colleges in Karnataka (COMEDK) in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL).
The PIL challenged the admission guidelines of COMEDK, for admitting students to Engineering courses under the management quota seat. The guidelines require students to pay five times the tuition fee as a penalty if the student surrenders their seat in the first round of counselling, according to reports.
The petition also claimed that the penalty clause mentioned in the fee refund policy deprives students of participating in the second round of counselling despite having a higher rank, once they surrender an allotted seat.
It also contended the policy was “arbitrary” as it requires a student to forfeit the entire tuition fee including other fees paid at COMEDK level if they fail to join the allotted college. Reports highlighted that the petitioner argued that this refund policy is “illegal” as it is contrary to the guidelines issued by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the University Grants Commission (UGC) wherein institutes are prohibited from the forfeiture of entire fee paid during admission.
When does counselling begin?
Meanwhile, the schedule for the counselling process for COMEDK is expected to be announced soon, an official from COMEDK informed EdexLive. “The schedule will either be released this week or early next week,” the official said.
Although few media reports suggested that the KEA and COMEDK will plan the counselling schedule together, Executive Director of KEA, Ramya S informed EdexLive that it has not yet been decided.
A meeting was meant to be held with the state government and the Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering College Association today, September 13 on starting the counselling process for engineering seats. However, Chandrashekhar Raju, a member of the association said that the meeting has been postponed due to the PIL that was filed.
