HC asks Centre to clarify quota policy to be followed at Anna varsity

The Madras High Court on Monday directed the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), below the Union Ministry of Science and Technology, to clarify on what foundation it had been insisting that universities within the State comply with the Central reservation policy for programs funded by it. The court docket sought to know this because the University Grants Commission (UGC) tips allow varsities to comply with the State authorities’s reservation policy.

Justice B. Pugalendhi granted time until Wednesday for the Centre to clarify its stand. He raised the question in the course of the listening to of writ petitions filed by aspirants wanting to be part of M. Tech (Biotechnology) and M. Tech (Computational Biology) programs supplied by Anna University, which had earlier determined not to conduct the programs for the educational 12 months 2020-21 due to a dispute in following the reservation policy.

Expressing sturdy displeasure over such a transfer, the decide instructed its counsel that at a time “when all universities have been starting new courses, Anna University alone appeared to be discontinuing courses that were in existence for nearly 25 years.” He puzzled what the need for the varsity was to all of the sudden search clarification from the State authorities this 12 months on the quantum of reservation.

In reply, college counsel Vijayakumar instructed the court docket that it had acquired a communication from DBT asking it to comply with the Centre’s 49.5% reservation policy this 12 months as nicely for the admission to the 2 PG programs. Hence, the college was constrained to search a clarification from the State authorities, which insisted on following 69% reservation in admissions.

A central authorities standing counsel instructed the court docket that the Centre was funding related programs at the Madurai Kamaraj University, the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in Coimbatore, the K.S. Rangasamy College of Technology in Tiruchengode and different establishments. All of them admitted college students this 12 months by following the Centre’s reservation policy.

“Does that mean you are indirectly imposing the Centre’s reservation policy in Tamil Nadu?” the decide requested earlier than Special Government Pleader E. Manoharan and petitioners’ counsel A. Saravanan stated universities established by the State authorities should comply with solely the native quota policy because the infrastructure for conducting the programs was being offered by these universities. They additionally highlighted that UGC tips categorically state that universities should comply with solely the State authorities’s reservation policy.

Mr. Manoharan additionally relied upon a couple of Supreme Court judgments and stated the AICTE had no position to play in admissions to the 2 programs in query and therefore the deadline talked about by it had no relevance.

The decide remarked that the communication despatched by DBT asking Anna University to comply with the Centre’s reservation policy appeared to be a genesis of the confusion created this 12 months and insisted that the officer, who had issued the communication, clarify his stand inside a day.