This verdict may directly affect the general fifth round of centralised admissions which have yet to begin for all the vacant engineering seats in the state.

The bench comprising Justices V P Tipnis and D K Trivedi gave this verdict for the two institutes -- Indira Gandhi Engineering College (Kopar Khairane, Navi Mumbai) and Mandar Education Society's Engineering College (Pedhambe, near Chiplun in Ratnagiri) -- even though the colleges had acquired a provisional approval of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) on October 15 this year.

On July 6 this year, the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) had excluded the two engineering institutes from the admission process after theSundaram Committee of the University of Mumbai had in its report submitted in May found inadequate facilities and lack of proper infrastructure.

Following DTE's exclusion, the college managements filed a writ petition in the high court. However, the university counsel Rui Rodgrigues argued that even if the colleges did get the provisional certificate of the AICTE, they would not be able to complete the mandatory 72 working days in the first semester which ends on December 5.

When the petitioners' counsels argued why the admission process for the two colleges cannot be clubbed with the pending fifth round of centralised admissions, Rodrigues reasoned that the university's acting vice-chancellor Dr Naresh Chandra has categorically stated that the varsity will not consider even those candidates who are admitted through the centralised process now on the same ground that they cannot complete 72 working days of the first term.