CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday directed Anna University to proceed with the admission of 45 students to two M.Tech courses for the current academic year in keeping with Centre’s 49.5 per cent reservation policy.
A student, Chithra, had moved a petition after differences cropped up between the Centre and the State on the quota system to be followed for admitting students to M. Tech courses in biotechnology and computational biology.
While the Centre insisted on the 49.5 per cent quota, the State wanted the university to follow its 69 per cent reservation, following which it was decided not to offer the course this year. During Friday’s hearing, the petitioner’s counsel, Saravanan, submitted that the decision to scrap the courses had left the applicants in a dire and dicey situation.
Students who had prepared hard for the course and taken the GAT-B examination were left with a bleak future, he said. Appearing for the State, special pleader, E Manoharan, contended that if the 49.5 per cent reservation had to be followed, the Centre should select the candidates and not the University.
Recording the submissions, the single-member bench of Justice B Pugalendhi, orally directed the Central government and Anna University to admit 45 students under the Central government reservation policy.