Madras High Court: Allow JEE candidates for B Arch counselling at Anna University

“An interim direction has been sent to Anna University and the commissioner of Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions to permit students who have taken both NATA 2021 as well as JEE (Main) 2021 to participate in B Arch counselling. The selection shall be subject to the final result in these writ petitions,” Justice N Anand Venkatesh said in his interim order on hearing two writ petitions by a B Arch aspirant named M Meiyyammai and The Academic Society of Architecture.

The litigants submitted that the government changed admission norms that made students who appeared for JEE Main ineligible for B Arch admissions, and it is against The Architects, Act, 1972. “Candidates who qualify in the aptitude test conducted by NATA, as well as those who qualify in the JEE aptitude test, were considered eligible for B Arch admissions in TN. This was made clear by a GO dated September 5, 2020, by the Higher Education Department. A communication to this effect was issued by the Principal Secretary to the Director, Chennai Academy of Architecture and Design, ” the petitioner ssubmitted. They further argued that when the prospectus was issued for the academic year 2021-22, all of a sudden, NATA examination marks alone were taken into consideration. “This goes against the information bulletin published by NTA, which makes it clear that the JEE (Main) is conducted for admission to B Arch and B Planning Course,” the petitioners contended.

The court further held, “Since the students who had taken the JEE (Main) examination were not able to submit their application online, they will be permitted to participate in the counselling and submit relevant documents physically.” The court issued notice to the Union government, State government, Anna university, commissioner for Tamil Nadu Engineering admissions and council for the architecture and posted the matter to November 9.