Calcutta University has decided to put on hold its admission process for in-house undergraduate courses as it is awaiting an order from the state government, which has yet to receive legal opinion on OBC reservations, CU’s registrar said.

On May 20, the university’s faculty council decided to take in applications for its in-house undergraduate courses like food and nutrition, human development and music.

While the 137 colleges affiliated to Calcutta University run most of the undergraduate programmes, the university runs some of the undergraduate programmes on its own.

The faculty council decided to start the admission process for the in-house courses after taking the opinion of its own legal consultants on the OBC reservations to
avoid a delay in starting the classes.

However, CU registrar Debasis Das told The Telegraph on Monday: “We are not proceeding with the admissions to our in-house courses because the state government has sought legal opinion from the advocate-general on the OBC reservations. We are awaiting a directive from the state government after it gets the advocate-general’s opinion. Once this reaches us, we will start the admission process.”

Last year on May 21, Calcutta High Court quashed the Bengal government’s order that identified 77 communities as OBCs (Other Backward Classes) and secured a quota for them in jobs and education.

The state government challenged the order in the Supreme Court and apprised the apex court in March that the state had undertaken a fresh exercise to identify the potential OBC beneficiaries in the next three months.

Recently, the state government sought the opinion of Bengal’s advocate-general on the OBC reservations at the undergraduate level before starting the admission process.

Asked whether the opinion has come, education minister Bratya Basu said on Sunday: “It has not come yet. Once it comes, it will be passed on to the highest level of the state government. Then the necessary notification will be issued.”

A CU official said admissions to the affiliated colleges could not be started though the Plus-II results were published in early May because of the doubts about the OBC reservations.

“In such a scenario, it would not be correct to start the admission to any undergraduate course. It could invite legal complications,” said a CU official.

The start of undergraduate admission at the government and aided colleges through the centralised admission portal has yet to begin.

The private and autonomous colleges and universities outside the ambit of the state-run portal, have started their admission from the first week of May.

The delay in starting the admission process has infused a fear of college seats remaining vacant like last year among principals.