Admit students appearing in NATA and JEE exams to B Arch counselling, HC directs AU

“To balance the rights of the students, there shall be an interim direction directing the Anna University and the Commissioner of Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions to permit the students who have taken both NATA 2021 as well as JEE (Main) 2021 to participate in the counselling for B Arch Course. 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 through their counsels that the government has changed the admission norms that made students who appeared for JEE-mains ineligible for B Arch admissions, and it's against The Architects, Act, 1972.

“Candidates who qualify in the aptitude test conducted by NATA, as well as the candidates who qualify in the aptitude test which is conducted by JEE, were considered eligible to participate in the admissions to B Arch Course in Tamil Nadu. This position was made clear by a government order dated September 5, 2020, by the Tamil Nadu higher education department. Communication has also been issued to this effect by the principal secretary to the Government to the Director, Chennai Academy of Architecture and Design,” the petitioner submitted.

They further argued that when the prospectus was issued for the academic year 2021-22, all of a sudden the NATA examination marks alone were taken into consideration for the B Arch Course.

“This goes completely against the information bulletin published by National Testing Agency(NTA), which makes it very clear that the JEE (Main) is conducted for admission to B Arch and B Planning Course,” the petitioners contended.

On recording the submissions, the judge passed an interim order to Anna University and the Commissioner of Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions to admit the students who have appeared in the NATA as well as the JEE mains.

The court further asked the students to submit their certificates physically during the counselling.

“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 the relevant documents physically at the time of counselling,” the court held.

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, 2021.