Apex court declines plea for college-level counselling
BHOPAL: The Supreme Court has passed an order declining a prayer for college level counselling to fill up seats for the B.Ed. course but directing the Madhya Pradesh regime to take fresh steps within 15 days for filling up all the vacant seats in recognised colleges.
The matter relating to a generous number of seats for B.Ed. course that were lying vacant was brought to the notice of the Supreme Court through a special leave petition. The petitioners were Bhopal’s Takshila College and all other unaided private colleges offering B.Ed. courses.
It was brought to the notice of the Supreme Court that for taking admission to B.Ed. course within the State of Madhya Pradesh, after exhausting the State quota, 8,411 seats were still lying vacant.
The State Regime’s stand before the Court was that in pursuance of the direction of the High Court (Para 19 of the impugned order), 5,142 seats would be filled up by admitting the students who had taken the common admission test, but even after this 3,269 seats would still be lying vacant.
The Supreme Court disposed of the petitions ordering that the State Regime be directed totake fresh steps to fill up all the vacant seats in recognised colleges within 15 days.
Permission denied
Even after two phases of counselling, the State Regime had refused to permit the recognised colleges to fill up seats by admitting eligible available students that had not taken the common entrance test. The private colleges had approached the Supreme Court challenging an earlier High Court order and to seek permission for filling up their seats by college-level counselling.
The Supreme Court declined the prayer for college-level counsellingbut directed the State Regime to fill upthe vacant seats by holding centralised counselling. Senior advocates Vivek Tankha and P. S. Pantwalia appeared for the B.Ed colleges.