HC verdict on sharing of Engineering seats tomorrow

Chennai, Jul 11 (UNI) A Division Bench of Madras High Court today completed the hearing on the PIL petitions filed by various organisations on the sharing of seats in Engineering courses in many colleges in the state and announced that it would pronounce its verdict tomorrow.

Advocate General R Viduthalai submitted before a Bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice Jothimani that the voluntary consensual surrender of seats was permissible and the Consortium of Self-financing Colleges had surrendered them consciously last year.

It cannot be a one year arrangement and had it been allowed they would always go back, he submitted.

He also contended that if the admission was not regulated through a single window system, there could have been uniformity in the admission process.

He submitted that if the seat sharing consensual arrangement was only to help the poor, the Backward and weaker sections of the society, it could be a one year arrangement, but then has to be perrenial.

Voluntary agreement for seat sharing was an aspect of maintenance of merit and hence by necessary implication it could only be a one-time agreement and not an annual excercise'', he submitted.

Chief Justice A P Shah observed that surrendering of seats should be a voluntary arrangement and cannot be imposed.

The Bench reserved its orders for tomorrow.

UNI