A case related to admitting students in M.Tech (Biotechnology) and M.Tech (Computational Biology) courses offered by Anna University has been listed for hearing once again before the Madras High Court on Wednesday. It has been listed to seek clarification as to whether the Centre could provide the quota for economically weaker sections (EWS) in the two courses when the State government had not taken any decision yet on implementing such quota.
The case has been listed under the caption ‘For Being Mentioned’ before Justice B. Pugalendhi at the instance of Special Government Pleader (Higher Education) E. Manohar. The judge had disposed of the case on February 19 with a direction to the university to admit the students as per the Centre’s norms since both the courses were wholly sponsored by the Department of Biotechnology under the Union Ministry of Science and Technology.
The issue had gone to court after Anna University decided not to offer the two courses for the academic year 2020-21 since the State government insisted on following its 69% reservation policy, and not the Centre’s 49.5% reservation policy, while admitting students. Wondering why such premier courses should be discontinued, the court ordered that they should be offered this year too by following the Centre’s reservation policy since they were sponsored by the Centre.
However, after the judgement, yet another controversy arose when the 10% EWS quota was applied in admission to the two courses. The State government had so far not taken any decision on implementing such quota in admissions to educational institutions or for public employment and therefore the government had decided to make a mention before the judge.
