Engineering a fight for students

The rules declared by the Maharashtra Government on May 22, 1998, state that seats will be distributed in proportion to the number of students taking the Higher Secondary Certificate HSC examination from each university region.

However, Marathwada being a backward region, the percentage of students taking the HSC exam is far too small compared to developed regions like Pune and Mumbai and as such this cannot form the basis for distribution, the petitionstates.

The rules are thus violative of Section 371 2 C of the Constitution of India, which provides for equitable distribution of seats in professional institutions among all regions of the State, it adds.

The 16 per cent quota for Marathwada should also include a proportionate number of seats in premier institutes like Veermata Jijabai Technical Institute Mumbai, the University Department of Chemical Technology Mumbai, LIT, VRCK Nagpur and colleges under the jurisdiction of the University of Poona, the petition says.

On all previous occasions that the petitioner, veteran freedom fighter Vijendra Kabra, approached the Court he was granted interim relief by various Benches which resulted in additional seats for students from Marathwada in courses like petrochemical, structural engineering, architecture there are no Government colleges in Marathwada running these courses metallurgy and mining among others. The Court had also granted an increase in the regular quota in the premierinstitutes.

However, these directives provided interim relief and could ensure that the quotas were enhanced by the colleges for the respective academic years only.

For every time the State Government announced the rules for admission, it reverted to the original regulations. Hence, the petitioner has been approaching the Court every year to maintain the continuity of the enhanced quotas.

8220;In such a situation it has become necessary for me to approach the Court every year just to get the State Government to continue extending the benefits for Marathwada8217;s students,8221; Kabra states in his petition. He has also taken strong exception to the Government8217;s consistent delay in announcing the rules for admission.

Section 65 of the Maharashtra State Universities Act, 1994, states that any scheme of rules affecting admissions should be announced at least six months in advance. However, the Government has not adhered to this over the last four years, Kabra says. This, he points out, deprive students of seekingjustice against any rules that might result in any kind of academic loss to them.

During the last hearing, advocate for the State Government Ananbhushan Kanade had argued that students from Marathwada had in fact been allocated 434 seats for the current academic year, five more than the previous year.

However Kabra8217;s counsel, Pradeep Deshmukh, had cast doubts on the figures provided by the Government and asked for a detailed break-up. The next hearing is scheduled for Monday.