admissions to Goa College of Architecture (GCA) will be

PANJIM: The admissions to Goa College of Architecture (GCA) will be
stalled for sometime.

The Supreme Court has ordered to maintain status quo regarding
admissions to GCA after the Council for Architecture (CoA) approached
the Supreme Court, challenging the order of High Court of Goa at
Panjim, which had granted permission to the state government to go
ahead with the permissions.

The counsel for CoA, Naveen Nath, approached the Supreme Court stating
that the High Court had passed an order without giving CoA a fair
hearing. He also submitted that the High Court has itself admitted
that the college has failed to maintain minimum standards required to
run an architecture college and therefore the college shouldn't be
allowed to go ahead with admissions.

After hearing the counsel on July 25, the Court ordered to maintain
status quo till the final hearing on August 3. In other words, the
letter dated June 14, 2007 to the officiating principal and a public
notice on July 7, 2007 put by CoA communicating to the students
desirous to take admission into first year BArch course that GCA has
been put under "No admission" for the Academic Session 2007-08 stands
till final hearing on August 3.

Meanwhile, the Technical Education department has already conducted
the first round of admission on July 24, 2007. They have admitted 12
students on the spot to GCA and asked them to attend classes
immediately. The total number of seats available in the first in year
of architecture course at the GCA is 30. Reliable sources at Technical
Education reveal that the second round of admission would be held on
August 1, 2007.

But now the fate of 30 students is uncertain till the final order of
the Supreme Court on August 3. It must be recalled that CoA had
stopped the admissions to GCA, as the college had failed to fully
comply with the minimum standards and requirements lay down by CoA.

However, the Division bench of Justice RS Mohite and Justice NA Britto
at High Court of Bombay, Panjim bench, had rejected this argument
stating that CoA can't directly freeze the admission of students to a
college and had not followed the procedures.