Students of Bhawanipur Gujarati Education Society check their names on the admission list on Tuesday. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Seventeen hundred first-year students of a south Calcutta college faced with the prospect of losing a year can now breathe easy.

The high court on Tuesday struck down a Calcutta University (CU) order slashing the number of B.Com (honours) seats in Bhawanipur Gujarati Education Society College from 2,000 to 300.

“The university has no right to issue such an order without the senate’s approval,” Justice Soumitra Pal ruled. The senate is CU’s highest policy-making body.

The judge also asked the university to pay Rs 10,200 to the college as legal cost.

The CU authorities had issued the seat slash order on June 20, when the admission process was almost complete, following an inspection of the college. The institute then moved the high court against the order.

The pro vice-chancellor of the university, D.J. Chattopadhyay, refused to comment on Tuesday before going through a copy of the order.

A source in CU, however, said: “We will definitely not take a decision that can harm the interest of the students.”

Soon after the court issued the order, the college authorities put up a list of students who could attend first-year B.Com (honours) classes, which were supposed to start in end-July. “The moment we heard about the verdict we went running to college,” said a student, relieved that her provisional admission was finally confirmed.

College secretary Heena Gorsia said: “We are trying to start B.Com (honours) classes as soon as possible.”