Supreme Court okays 15 per cent NRI quota admission in SF colleges

Thiruvananthapuram: The Supreme Court on Thursday approved the admissions to the NRI quota seats  made by self-engineering colleges on the basis of an agreement with the state government which was rejected by the AICTE for violation of norms.

The state government had permitted these engineering colleges to admit 15 percent of the total intake under the NRI seats for BTech courses whereas the AICTE allowed only five per cent. These admissions were questioned by the admission supervisory committee as they violated the AICTE norms.

Following this, APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University had withheld the results of 277 candidates admitted to the NRI seats in 12 engineering colleges.

The court approved the contention of the colleges, including UKF College of engineering and technology, Parippally,  that only the approval of the state government was needed for admissions to BTech courses.

The AICTE has informed the court that it was   willing to regularise the admissions if the colleges paid a fine of Rs 2 lakh.  

The engineering colleges contended that they did not require any approval from the AICTE as NRI seats in Kerala include that for children, wards or dependents of NRIs which are different from the NRI seats contemplated by the AICTE as the same are only for NRI children.