AICTE takes these engineering colleges to Supreme Court over excessive admissions

Mumbai July 13:The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has filed a special leave petition against the Bombay High Court decision allowing admission to four engineering colleges in the state.

These four are among the 54 colleges that had been barred from admitting students for the academic year 2016-17 by the AICTE after the colleges defaulted on conforming to the apex body’s guidelines.

Many of the colleges had approached the High Court and 10 of them were granted stay

However, the AICTE has hit back at four of the erring engineering colleges by approaching the Supreme Court.

A letter sent from the AICTE to the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) has named Padmabhushan Vasantdada Patil Pratishthans College, Sion, Anjuman-I-Islam’s Saboo Siddik College, Byculla, Thadomal Shahani College, Bandra and Dr J J Magdum College, Kolhapur.

According to data available on the DTE website, around 190 applicants had been allocated seats in Vasantdada Patil College against an intake capacity of 270 in the first round of allocation.

More than 250 students were allocated seats in Thadomal Shahani College, which has an intake of 420.

“If the Supreme Court says that admission to these colleges have to be cancelled, we will wait for guidelines from the AICTE on whether to shift the students to other colleges,” said DTE Director S K Mahajan.

Meanwhile, members of the NGO Citizens Forum for Sanctity in Education, whose complaint had triggered the AICTE decision, said an action should be taken against the remaining three erring colleges in Mumbai.

Engineering colleges have to seek an extension of approval every year for their AICTE affiliation to remain valid.

They have to submit affidavits specifying details of infrastructure, staff strength and other facilities.

However, last year, the NGO had complained that engineering colleges had furnished false details about their infrastructure and faculty.