After SC rap, AICTE advances admission date

After receiving a rap from the Supreme Court for “irresponsible working”, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has redrawn the academic schedule for engineering colleges and advanced the deadline for admission to undergraduate courses.

While previously AICTE had notified August 30 as the last date for admission into BE/BTech degree courses for the academic year 2012-13, it has now advanced the deadline to August 15. The new date is in tune with the directions given by the Supreme Court bench, comprising Justices A K Patnaik and Swatanter Kumar on December 13.

The AICTE has decided to send a copy of the Supreme Court order to all state governments to ensure strict compliance. In its order, the bench had found holes in the AICTE’s academic calendar saying, “we are unable to appreciate that when the academic session begins on August 1, then why should admission be granted up to August 30.”

The bench wanted to know the logic behind the admission Schedule as the AICTE had also stated that it would not grant any approval for commencing new courses or sanction additional intake of students in a technical institution beyond April 30 every year. “The Schedule, thus, introduces an element of arbitrariness and may cause prejudice to the students who might miss their classes for a period of one month without any justification. Thus, it is required that the above-stated Schedule be modified to bring it in line with the Schedule for approval as well as to prevent inequalities, arbitrariness and prejudice from affecting the students in relation to their academic courses,” the judges had observed.

The bench also imposed a fine of `50,000 on the AICTE for granting approval to a private engineering college though the council’s expert committee had found inadequacies in the institutions.

An AICTE official said, “We have decided to send a copy of the SC judgment on academic schedule to state governments... We would be urging the State to complete all admission process by Aug 15, as directed by the Supreme Court.”