The Supreme Court has asked the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations (CEE) to indicate by Thursday the total number of vacant seats to be filled in the management quota in 11 self-financing medical colleges in the State.
A Bench of Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice S.S. Nijjar gave the direction on Monday when counsel for a student disputed the submission made by Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for the CEE, that 97 seats were yet to be filled.
The Bench had on August 30 directed the Kerala Private Medical College Managements Association to admit students to the 35 per cent seats reserved under the management quota in its colleges from the rank list prepared by the CEE on the basis of its Common Entrance Test (CET) conducted this year. The Bench passed the order while declining to stay a Kerala High Court judgment declaring void and inoperative an entrance test conducted by the association on May 30 for admission to the management seats in the 11 self-financing colleges.
Number of vacant seats
During resumed hearing on Monday, Mr. Subramaniam, in response to a question from Justice Reddy, informed the court that 97 seats in the management quota were to be filled and that 253 students who were willing to pay the fee fixed under the management quota had joined the course, though some of them were yet to give the bank guarantee.
State backs proposal
Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati, appearing for the State, said the CEE's proposal to have a separate CET for the remaining seats was acceptable to the State .
Senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for the managements, submitted that the concern of the managements was that no seat should go waste and that admission could be made in whatever method suggested by the CEE.
Mr. Subramaniam suggested that a separate CET be conducted to fill the remaining 97 vacancies. However, the figure was disputed by senior counsel V. Giri, who said some more seats remained vacant.
Following this, the Bench asked the CEE to file an affidavit indicating the total number of seats to be filled and how it proposed to fill the vacancies.
The Bench asked Mr. Salve to render all assistance to the Solicitor General in this regard and posted the matter for further hearing on September 23, when appropriate orders would be passed.
Source:- THE HINDU
