Indore: Minority college directors meet minister over DHE’s restrictions in admission

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Nearly 25 days after the release of 'Admission Guidelines 2022-23', directors of colleges with minority institute status met higher education minister Mohan Yadav in the city on Thursday and highlighted "unwarranted” conditions imposed on the admission of students.

As the modal code of conduct is in force, the minister did not give any assurance of getting the corrections done in the admission guidelines, officers of the Department of Higher Education (DHE) told minority college directors that immediate relief can’t be granted to them.

However, Virendra Shukla, an OSD at DHE, told college directors that minority institutes would be allowed to convert seats meant for students belonging to minority sections into general seats.

“No assurance in writing has been given to us though,” said Dr Narendra Dhakad, president of the Minority College Association.

Minority colleges have moved the Madhya Pradesh High Court against DHE’s move of imposing “unwarranted” conditions on the admission of students.

The guideline states that though reservation policy won’t be applicable to them, the minority colleges still have to admit students keeping the ratio of “one minority student against one non-minority student” in mind.

Firstly, it is for the first time such a condition has been imposed on minority colleges in the past decade.

Secondly, the guidelines state that quota seats in government and aided colleges will be converted into general seats in the last round of counseling if they remained unoccupied. But such a facility has not been provided to minority colleges even in the last leg of counseling.

“These are unwarranted conditions which have been imposed on minority colleges. We have moved the court seeking directions to the DHE for removal of the conditions,” said the director of minority colleges.

The court is likely to list the matter for hearing in two to three days.

All leading colleges in the city have minority institute status

In Indore, there are a total of 38 minority colleges. All leading colleges in the city have minority institute status. Some of the leading institutes are Gujarati College, Indore Christian College, Renaissance College, Vishshit School of Management, ISBA College, Alexia College, Shri Jain Diwakar College, Arihant College, Oxford College, and Indore Institute of Law, to name a few. These colleges remain the preferred choice of students for admission.

Published on: Thursday, June 09, 2022, 03:33 PM IST