Vindicating the state government’s stand, the Karnataka High Court has upheld the state’s policy on admissions to professional courses on the extent of seats to be filled by the Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell. The court, however, laid down its own fee structure for the colleges to follow.The division bench comprising Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice K.L. Manjunath, by an interim order on Monday, clarified that these measures were applicable only for the current year’s admissions. Reacting to the order, Law Minister D.B. Chandre Gowda said: ‘‘The time-tested CET has been accepted finally by the court. The 75:25 seat sharing mechanism is a valid stand that we have taken.’’However, the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental colleges of Karnataka (ComedK) has decided to challenge the order in the Supreme Court. Its counsel Madhusudan Naik said colleges were not happy with the percentage of seats allowed and the fees fixed.As per the order, colleges will continue to get 25 per cent of seats for admissions on their own based on merit. In unaided private colleges, 25 per cent of seats will go to students selected under reservation quota and 10 per cent to students from outside Karnataka. The significant modification is clubbing of 25 per cent merit seats along with 15 per cent payment-Karnataka seats. In other words, 40 per cent of seats will be known as Karnataka seats.For unaided minority institutions, the CET Cell will fill up 50 per cent of seats. The other half will be filled by colleges by way of a merit-based selection process. The court has laid down guidelines as to how a college can determine merit for admission under its own quota of seats. It could be either on the basis of marks in the qualifying exams or the entrance test conducted by the college. Or the college can have its own scheme to judge merit by giving 90 per cent weightage to qualifying exam marks and 10 per cent to interview.
