Soon after getting a favourable order from the Odisha High Court, the Odisha Private Engineering College Association (OPECA) on Friday requested the State Government to hold a special Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) immediately so as to fill up the BTech seats lying vacant in several engineering colleges.
“We have requested the State Government to hold a special JEE as per the orders of the High Court so as to fill up the seats by August 15. In case there is some delay, the Government could also approach the Supreme Court for an extension in admission deadline,” said OPECA president Binod Dash.
The OPECA’s request to the High Court came in the wake of an order of the High Court passed earlier on the day in which the court had asked the State Government to hold a special JEE for intake of BTech students and second JEE to fill up the remaining seats in MCA and MBA lying vacant in several colleges.
A Division Bench of the High Court comprising Justice Indrajit Mahanti and Biswanath Mohapatra gave the order after adjudicating a petition filed by the OPECA. The petition had contested the intake of B Tech students in State’s engineering colleges on the basis of a single All India JEE by violating a provision of the Odisha Professional Education Act.
The petition said before merging with the AIJEE, the State Act was not amended. Further the State Act also has a provision to have a second JEE to fill up vacant seats if any, the OPECA president said adding that more than 80 per cent seats are now lying vacant in nearly 90 colleges after the admission on the basis of AIJEE. The petition had also stated that in view of having less number of examination centres in the State for the all India examination, many Odia students could not sit for the test resulting in the vacant seats in the colleges, particularly the privately run institutions. While over 43,000 B Tech seats are now available in the State, over 31,000 of them are now lying vacant.