Calcutta: Calcutta High Court on Wednesday allowed 218 students of a Behala college accused of admission beyond sanctioned limit to write their Part I undergraduate exam. Their results will, however, not be declared till the case is disposed of.

Justice Arindam Sinha issued the interim order following a petition filed by the principal of Vivekananda College for Women, Barisha, challenging the university's decision not to allow registration of 218 Part-I honours students in five subjects because the college had allegedly admitted 10 candidates more than its sanctioned limit.

Since it is impossible to identify the 10 "extra" students, Calcutta University had barred all Part I candidates in five subjects from writing the test.

The judge fixed the case for final hearing on March 21.

With the lawyers of Calcutta High Court on ceasework demanding filling up of vacant posts of judges in the court, principal Soma Bhattacharya, moved the petition before the court herself.

The deputy inspector of colleges of Calcutta University, Nishat Alam, opposed the petition on behalf of the university.

"The university has said we have admitted 10 extra students in first year last year. But the university authorities have refused registration to 218 honours students of Bengali, political science, history, botany and education," Bhattacharya said.

She said that the university had earlier assured the college that al students would be allowed registration.

"But on February 20, the last date for accepting registration applications of Part-I students, we came know that the university's syndicate body had refused to grant permission for the registration of our students. The university authorities, however, had not communicated the syndicate's decision to them. We came to know the decision after we called them on our own," Bhattacharya said.

The principal said the college had not flouted the university norms while admitting students. "On May 30 last year, the university issued a notification on its website declaring the allotment of seats in different subjects. After going through the notification, we found we had admitted 10 extra students in five honours subjects. We alerted the university about the excess admission the very next day. Since then, the authorities concerned had repeatedly assured us that all 218 candidates would be registered," she said.

The deputy inspector of colleges told the court that the university had repeatedly cautioned all colleges that admission beyond the sanctioned capacity would not be allowed.

He, however, said there were three other options for the 218 students to get register under the university. "They can appear as candidates from another college where there are less students or they can shift to another subject in the same college where there are vacancies. The third option is to appear in the general course instead of honour.

But the college principal ruled out the options.

The judge asked Alam for the reason behind not considering the college authorities' application. "It is a decision of the university syndicate," Alam replied.

The judge issued the interim order and told the principal that the examination results would depend on the final disposal of the case.