No stay on second phase seat allotment

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Friday declined to stay the process of the second phase of the centralised seat allotment for engineering courses.While hearing a batch of petitions, Justice Antony Dominic declined to stay the implementation of the notification on the centralised allotment process.The petitioners challenged a new condition  inserted in the prospectus for admission to engineering courses that the marks obtained in the qualifying examination would also be computed while preparing the rank-list for the admission.The petitioners submitted that candidates opting for the engineering courses were discriminated.They pointed out that the marks of the qualifying examination were not counted for admission to medical courses.They further submitted that the Controller of Entrance Examination did not have any power to insert the new condition in the prospectus. The condition was introduced without the support of the statutory law in this regard.It went against the dictum of the Supreme Court that admission should be made on the basis of the evaluation of relative merits through an entrance examination that should be open to a qualified candidate throughout the country, the petitioners argued.