In a major boost to private unaided colleges on Tuesday, the Andhra Pradesh High Court stayed the state government’s order that had made it mandatory for engineering colleges to fill management quota seats online for the current academic year. While the college managements rejoiced, the state government decided to file a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court challenging the HC order.
A Division Bench, comprising acting Chief Justice P.C. Ghose and Justice Vilas V. Afzulpurkar, was dealing with a batch of writ petitions by institutions and students challenging the validity of GOs 66 and 67 issued on September 3, which made the online system for management quota seats compulsory.
Officials, meanwhile do not have a clue how the management seats will be filled now that the online system, which was supposed to start from Wednesday, has been scrapped. The petitioners had stated that the rules had been changed midway through the selection process and had prayed that the court grant an interim order by suspending the operation of the GOs.
While posting the hearing on main writs after six weeks, the Bench said, “The validity of the GOs will be decided by us after filing of counters by the state government and other respondents. We direct that the counters be filed within three weeks and petitioners shall file their replies, if any, within a week thereafter.”