The authorities of the autonomous Ernakulam Maharaja’s College have requested the Higher Education Department to admit the 12 candidates belonging to the SC/ST categories, whose admission was cancelled for exceeding the age limit prescribed in the prospectus for admission to the undergraduate programmes.
The college management has also suggested that the government could admit the five students, who are staging an agitation stating that they should be also admitted despite crossing the age limit of 22 years.
Principal N.L. Beena said that a letter seeking re-instatement of the 12 candidates was forwarded to the Higher Education department on Wednesday. We had taken a humanitarian view considering the fact that they had attended classes for nearly one-and-a-half months. They will also lose an academic year, as getting admission elsewhere will be difficult, she said.
But Prof. Beena clarified that this will be considered as a one-time relaxation and not as a precedent. All admissions will now be only based on the regulations including the age limit (22 years) prescribed in the prospectus approved by the governing council for undergraduate courses. The college authorities pointed out that the students and the department heads concerned had missed the rule on age limit leading to the present confusion. The LBS Centre at Thiruvananthapuram, which was entrusted with the online registration and allotment process, was also responsible as the officials responsible cleared the applications.
SFI protest (subhead)
Activists of the Students Federation of India staged a protest alleging that the authorities were denying admission to the SC/ST students.
The college authorities lodged a complaint against the agitators stating that they had destroyed college property as part of the protest.
