HYDERABAD: In a relief to the Telangana government, the High Court has refused to stay the notification issued by the state to have centralised online counselling for admissions to private degree colleges.
Dealing with a petition filed by Viswa Bharati Educational Society of the city and others, Justice P Naveen Rao has made it clear that the petitioner institutions can conduct admissions on their own but those admissions shall not be finalised and the managements have to inform the students about the court’s orders while admitting them.
The petitioners have challenged the notification issued on May 15 this year for online admissions and also a GO issued on April 10 fixing ` 12,000 as admission fee for degree courses in private colleges. They said the impugned GO and notification are illegal and ultra vires of the Telangana Educational Institutions (Regulations of Admissions and Prohibition of Capitation Fee) Act, 1983.
Terming the government’s action as unreasonable and infringement of their fundamental rights, the petitioners urged the court to direct the respondent authorities not to interfere with the petitioners’ institutions with regard to the process of admissions for academic year 2017-2018. Earlier, a single judge of the High Court had allowed certain private colleges to conduct admissions on their own, they pointed out and sought similar orders.
The government’s counsel said that in view of the allegations against the private colleges that they were indulging in irregularities while conducting admissions, the state decided to introduce the system of online admissions and fixed ` 12,000 as admission fee.
The judge refused to stay the online admissions at this stage and posted the matter to June 5 for further hearing.