CHENNAI: Observing that it is a shame on the part of Anna University to suspend a course for want of funds, the Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Tamil Nadu government and the varsity to find a solution to restart the two scrapped courses — MTech Biotechnology and MTech Computational Biology — for the current academic year.

The court was hearing a plea filed by an Anna University student challenging the decision of the premier institution to scrap the two courses for the 2020-21 academic year. The University scrapped the courses following differences over the Central government’s insistence that it follow the Centre’s 49.5% reservation and not the State’s 69 per cent quota policy in admissions.

During the hearing on Wednesday, the counsel for Anna University submitted that the programmes have been run by the Centre’s Department of Biotechnology (DBT) for the past 25 years and are completely funded by the department, with Anna University only providing the infrastructure.

He emphasised that throughout the years, the DBT had carried out the entire admission, with even the list of students to be admitted, by complying with the central government’s reservation policy.

However, this year they had sent the entire list to Anna University to carry out the admissions. The varsity in September had sought clarifications on the reservation policy, however, no convincing reply was made, the counsel said.

“Since we are an institution that is managed by the State, we sought clarification on the reservation,” said the counsel.

The court, recording the submissions, sought to know why Anna University itself could not run the courses successfully on its own and asked if only the central government’s reservation policy had been followed throughout the 25 years.

“It is a shame that such a course is being suspended by the Varsity for want of funds instead of restarting it,” observed the judge.

The judge also sought to know the State’s position on the entire suspension of courses. Special Government Pleader N Manoharan appearing for the State sought time to seek instruction from the officials.

The court directed the Anna University and the State counsel to work together in finding a solution to commence the courses.

According to the petitioner, the decision to scrap the courses for the current academic year has left all the applicants in a dire and dicey situation. The students who have prepared hard for the course and taken the GAT-B examination are left with an empty future to grapple with, the petitioner added.
The court adjourned the plea to Monday for the State to file a counter.