Court Stays Ranking of Engineering Colleges under Anna University

The Madras high court on Tuesday stayed an order by a single judge of the court directing Anna University of Technology (AUT) to publish an academic ranking of all affiliated engineering colleges to help students make an informed choice.


AUT Chennai and Coimbatore have already ranked colleges under them based on academic indicators. The latest order will apply to the AUTs in Trichy and Tirunelveli. However, this is an interim stay.

The stay order was given by a division bench of Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and M Venugopal on a petition filed by the Association of Management of Coimbatore Anna University Affiliated Colleges. Submitting that the single-judge order passed on July 18 had"seriously affected and jeopardised" the members of the association, the plea filed by the Association said institutions could not be ranked for the purpose of admission on the basis of academic performance of students in the previous year alone.

"Academic performance may be the outcome of various factors. This fact alone cannot be made the basis to rank the excellence of an institution. At any rate, there is no right for the first respondent—N Ramprasanth—to ask for the same nor a duty of the universities to publish the same, much less make it public," the petition said.

The petition also sought to avert"further damage" as some engineerig colleges were trying to take advantage of the ranking list already published by AUT, Coimbatore, in their advertisements.

The rankings released by AUT in accordance with the earlier directions of the single judge, classified colleges based on three parameters.

These were pass percentage of first year students in 2010-11, total number of answer papers versus those in which pass marks were granted, and year of establishment versus pass percentage.


Source: Times of India