HC rejects plea against State by Pune engg students

MUMBAI, JULY 8: A division of the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court today rejected a petition challenging the State Government's ord...

MUMBAI, JULY 8: A division of the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court today rejected a petition challenging the State Government8217;s ordinance merging students of North Maharashtra University NMU and Pune University for forthcoming engineering college admissions.

Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justice S H Kapadia accepted the reasons set out in the ordinance by the State wherein it was stated that the infrastructure of the North Maharashtra University covering Dhule and Jalgaon engineering faculty still remained poor and fewer engineering colleges were available for the meritorious students under the university.

The division bench rejected the contentions of a public interest litigation filed by one Aditya Anil Godbole whose counsel, S M Paranjpe argued that the decision would have an adverse effect on students of the Pune university. According to the petitioners, the decision to allow NM university students to join the engineering courses in colleges under the Pune University would result in many students losing their merit against the outsiders. They might then have to take payment seats or even lose out on an opportunity to pursue engineering.

Statistics showed that there were 22 engineering colleges under Pune University where there were 6,650 seats and 7,156 students. Whereas in NM University, there were nine engineering colleges with 1,890 seats and only 1,710 students. Paranjpe also challenged the ordinance on the ground that it violated section 65 of the Maharashtra Universities8217; Act wherein the ordinance was to have come at least six months before the admission began. However, in this case, the ordinance was issued only on June 14th, 1999.

Students of NMU had been merged with the Pune students since the formation of the NMU in 1990. However, the State Government undertook to change it in 1998 and did not implement it in academic year, 1998-99.

The State ordinance shows that while there was no single A Grade engineering college under NMU, only one engineering college offered three engineering courses while a few private engineering colleges existed. The chances of the students in Dhule and Jalgaon districts therefore was severely limited. The merging will continue for five years hence.

A similar petition filed by Pune students, that was heard by Justices A V Sawant and R J Kochar was similarly rejected since the CJ8217;s bench had already decided the matter.