Orissa High Court

Cuttack, June 29: Orissa High Court has stayed the Odisha government’s move to reduce the NRI quota from 15 per cent to five per cent of the total student intake in private engineering colleges.

The court imposed the restriction on filling up NRI quota seats during the ongoing counselling by the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) Committee–2012 on a petition filed by the Odisha Private Engineering College Association (OPECA).

The single-judge bench of Justice Sanju Panda directed for conducting counselling for 85 per cent of the seats in private engineering colleges. The future of the remaining 15 per cent will depend on the final outcome of the writ petition, the court said in its interim order on Thursday.

The 92 private engineering colleges in Odisha have a sanctioned strength of nearly 38,000 seats.

The OJEE Committee–2012 had stated: “In a private professional educational institution other than minority institution not exceeding five per cent of the approved intake may be filled up by NRI from the merit list.”

The reduction in the NRI quota had irked private engineering colleges in the state. The OPECA moved Orissa High Court seeking relief on the ground that the cut in the NRI quota would hurt private colleges, as they were already hard pressed, with the number of engineering seats exceeding the demand.

The state government contended that the OJEE committee was only following guidelines of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).

According to AICTE guidelines, technical institutions are allowed to admit NRI students up to a maximum of five per cent of the total sanctioned strength of the institution. AICTE had introduced the five per cent quota norm in 2010, changing it from 15 per cent.

But OPECA secretary Binod Dash contended: “There is no rationale behind adopting the AICTE guideline, as the admissions made into the courses in Odisha are conducted following provisions of the Odisha Professional Educational Institution Act – 2007. As it is, nearly 50 per cent seats are lying vacant in engineering colleges. If the NRI quota is reduced more seats will remain vacant.”

Of the 38,000 sanctioned seats in private engineering colleges in the state, nearly 20,000 seats have stayed vacant after several rounds of counselling in the past few years.