Supreme Court Dismisses Plea By Orissa Private Engineering Colleges Association To Conduct 'O-JEE – 2021'

In the petition, it was urged that there are thousands of seats vacant in State of Odisha due to students being unable to appear in the qualifying examination O-JEE. It was stated that the O-JEE conducted its Entrance Examination i.e. special O-JEE in the month of August 2021 wherein there were shut down / lock down prohibitions imposed by the State Government and O-JEE had started its online counseling fixing the date 10.11.2021 for last date of registration and choice locking of the candidates from the JEE (Main) 2021 central pools. Consequent to such compelling situations faced by the candidates, only 6954 students had appeared in Special O-JEE Test 2021 for B-Tech Course, it was submitted.

"The Petitioner Association had approached the Hon'ble High Court of Odisha at Cuttack through WP (C) No. 35837 of 2021 seeking conduct of a second JEE examination for the unfilled seats. It is pertinent to state both the AICTE as well as the O-JEE had stated before the Hon'ble High Court that they had no objection for the conduct of a 2nd O-JEE, however it was pointed out that the last date for admissions was 30.11.2021. Further, the State Govt., in exercise of its power conferred under Section 3(2) of the Odisha Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fee) Amendment Act, 2016, inter alia, has also permitted the admissions at the institute level against vacant seats to be completed on or before 15.12.2021. However, the Hon'ble High Court stated that the time schedule for making admissions having been fixed by this Hon'ble Court for 30.11.2021, the said date was sacrosanct and would override the extension granted by the State Govt. Accordingly, the Petitioner Association sought to withdraw the Writ Petition to approach this Hon'ble Court for seeking extension in time in making admissions to the vacant seats under the State quota beyond the stipulated time in the revised schedule i.e. 30.11.2021. Whereas, the total seats available in the B-Tech institutions across the State are more than 32,000 and more than 60% of seats in B-Tech Engineering Course will remain vacant in the member – institutions of the Petitioner Association. Apart from the same, a substantial number of candidates in the State of Odisha had requisite qualifications to write the examination but failed to appear in the examinations due to the COVID – 19 pandemic. The said candidates would lose an academic year while thousands of seats go abegging," the petition submitted.

When Mr. Dave raised the issue of vacant seats, Justice Chandrachud observed, "The vacancies may be because students don't want to go for basic engineering courses now. They are looking at other emerging areas. So in Karnataka, Orissa, everywhere, seats are probably lying vacant."