Kolkata: Jadavpur University (JU) VC Chiranjib Bhattacharjee, officials of Calcutta University (CU), along with teachers, students and their guardians, raised objections to the notice from the West Bengal Joint Entrance Exam Board that candidates, who accepted seats and took admission after participating in centralised counselling rounds, could not participate in the decentralised counselling for vacant BTech seats. They called the move “against the laws of natural justice”.A petition with over 2,500 signatures urged WBJEEB to revise the rules as “the current system allows lower-rank applicants to fill these premium spots, which devalues the hard-earned merit of those who successfully navigated the competitive entrance process.”Previously, engineering institutes conducted decentralised counselling independently to fill seats, left vacant after the earlier board’s centralised counselling rounds.“It is highly objectionable and goes against the laws of natural justice,” said JU VC Bhattacharjee. “I have already communicated my objections to the directorate of technical education and will also write to the higher education department. I have been flooded with emails from students, requesting me to intervene. A premier institute, like JU, which is trying to compete with the IITs, will suffer the most. JU will lose out on promising students. Instead, mediocre students from lower ranks will take admission in coveted streams. This will affect our engineering rankings.”Echoing Bhattacharjee, a CU official said, “What the board has said doesn’t make sense as a student cannot be denied the right to education. How can a decentralised system be centralised? Several students, who were waiting for the decentralised system, are disappointed. We urge the higher education department and the JEE Board to have a rethink.”The state higher education department, however, is sticking to the stand, as the decision was arrived at reportedly after experiencing “numerous anomalies in the past”. An official from the department said, “Why should students be deprived? Those who enrolled in BTech programmes must have chosen subjects that they wanted to study. Some students consistently block seats, narrowing the opportunities for lower-rank candidates. Our purpose is to distribute seats fairly so that every eligible candidate gets the chance to study BTech.”But AISEC general secretary Tarun Kanti Naskar said, “The notice is discriminatory against high-ranking, meritorious students who have secured admission. This is a design to help private colleges to get their seats filled and promote privatisation of education.”The parent of a candidate, seeking engineering admission, also called the new move “completely against the laws of natural justice as it violated the WBJEE rank order”. “Were the students told about the restrictions during the centralised counselling rounds? Were they informed that once they chose a seat in a subject at an institute, he or she would not be allowed to upgrade? Rules cannot be changed midway through the process.”Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association assistant secretary Arindam Sil said, “Bypassing higher-rank students to grant opportunities to lower-rank candidates goes directly against the principles of natural justice. In the name of filling seats, isn’t this a grave injustice to high-rankers as well as to the institutes?”
