With Eamcet counselling for engineering courses already delayed, all eyes will be focused on New Delhi on Friday as Supreme Court takes up the case on admission to engineering colleges in AP. Besides the state government, which moved SC after its fee formula was struck down by the AP High Court, all aspirants, their parents and college managements are keenly watching the case, hoping for a solution to pave way for early commencement of admissions.
On October 30 last year, the HC had scra-pped the fee structure in engineering colleges proposed by the Admi-ssions and Fee Regula-tory Committee for 2010-11 and 2011-12 academic years. The committee had clubbed the seats under category-A (convenor quota) and category-B (management quota). With the court finding fault with AFRC for fixing the variable fee for category-A seats at Rs 31,000 and at Rs 95,000 for category-B seats, the state challenged the order in SC, which granted a stay on the HC order in January.
The state government has decided to seek permission from the SC now to allow it to begin engineering admissions in the old format by categorising the seats as A and B for the academic year 2012-13. The state has petitioned that any changes in admission procedure should be implemented from next year. The government will also bring to the apex court’s notice that admissions for this year were already delayed, as most engineering colleges had failed to submit their audited financial statements to AFRC to explain a proposed hike in fees. The government will seek the court’s permission to go ahead either with the variable fee structure for two categories of seats, or fix a uniform fee for all seats.