Cuttack, July 31: Orissa High Court today allowed private engineering colleges to fill up 10 per cent of their seats under management quota by conducting counselling at their own level this year.

However, they can admit candidates only from the merit list of the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE)-2013 and the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE)-2013.

The ruling follows a petition filed by the Odisha Private Engineering Colleges’ Association demanding allocation of management quota in addition to 5 per cent NRI quota seats.

It paves the way for admission without counselling by the OJEE committee to 15 per cent seats of the private engineering colleges in the state, which has 90-odd private engineering colleges with a total intake capacity of over 45,000.

The high court had, in a ruling on October 1 last year, earmarked 15 per cent of the total intake of private engineering colleges – 10 per cent as management quota and five per cent – NRI quota. However, OJEE-2013 Committee had not earmarked any seats under the two reserved categories, OPECA alleged, seeking the court’s intervention.

On July 6, the single bench judge of Justice B.N. Mohapatra had directed the OJEE Committee-2013 to conduct counseling for admission to only 90 per cent of the seats after the state government claimed that it had allocated five per cent of seats for NRI quota as per the AICTE guidelines.

“We are happy that the ruling is in our favour. We are hopeful that the state government will accept it,” Opeca secretary Binod Dash told The Telegraph.

Official sources said at the end of first round of counselling, more than 27,000 seats remained vacant as per the final allotment list for engineering colleges on July 17. Though 19,600 applicants were allotted seats, more than 1000 candidates withdrew from the admission process.

In the second phase of counselling, only 3179 candidates expressed interest for admission by turning up at the eight nodal centres in the twin cities.

“Now that the court has given us the green signal to conduct admissions at our level, we hope that we will be able to fill up more seats. Thousands of outstation students are keen to take admissions in Odisha but many of lost out on the chance because there are limited seats for them.

But now they will get an opportunity to enroll against management seats,” said the chairman of a private engineering college.