Cuttack/Bhubaneswar, July 2: Private colleges in the state have raised objections to the admissions, conducted by the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Bhubaneswar, for 2015-16 prior to the announcement of JEE (Main) ranks by the Central Board of Secondary Education.

The college authorities have also approached the state government, demanding cancellation of these admissions.

The Odisha Private Engineering College Association alleged that IIIT, Bhubaneswar yesterday completed its admissions to BTech course without waiting for the CBSE-announced JEE (Main) ranks, a move that has triggered admissions to IITs, NITs and IIITs.

"This is completely illegal. The admission rule has been diluted as only the JEE (Main) scores have been considered and not the JEE (Main) ranks for conducting the admissions," association secretary Binod Dash said.

The JEE (Main) rank is declared after giving 40 per cent weightage to the Plus Two marks and 60 per cent weightage to JEE (Main) score.

"But, IIIT, Bhubaneswar has ignored the Plus Two marks and conducted its admissions. It is also illegal according to a Supreme Court direction, which stipulates that admissions to various courses should be merit based, transparent and non-exploitative," Dash said.

"IIIT, Bhubaneswar has violated the direction as the admissions are neither merit based, nor transparent or non-exploitative," he said.

The state employment, technical education and training department had, on November 7, 2013, notified that seats of four-year BTech degree course would be filled up in the deemed universities, state private universities and autonomous institutions through counselling conducted by the state government.

"As IIIT, Bhubaneswar is a state government-funded institution, its admission should be conducted only through OJEE counselling," argued the association, while urging the state government to call for fresh admission based on merit.

On January 24 last year, the state government converted the IIIT, Bhubaneswar into a unitary university.

In another development, the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) today began the online registration for admission in the BTech streams. The online registration would continue till July 17 while choice-locking and document-verification will start from July 15.

This year, as many as 18 nodal centres have been opened across the state for the students' convenience. The temporary seat allotment would be held on July 20, while the final seat allotment would be made on July 25, said the authorities.