The Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) administration has moved the Supreme Court seeking extension in the August 15 deadline for admission of selected students from the state in different colleges across the country under the Prime Minister's Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS). The court is likely to hear the plea next week.
On the J&K administration's behalf, advocate Shoeb Alam filed the plea before a apex court bench headed by Justice N.V. Ramana.
According to the plea, the government on August 5 revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir reorganising the state into two Union territories -- of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Since then, restrictions have been imposed on the assembly and movement of people and communications have been virtually suspended. Given this state of affairs, it would be difficult for students to meet the deadline and complete the admission process to various technical institutions under the scheme, said the plea.
The plea claimed that 3,672 students have already completed the admission process in the allotted institutions. For 2,401 students, it sought extension of the deadline from August 15 to September 15.
"It is most respectfully submitted that if the last date for joining is not extended, meritorious selected students would be deprived of quality higher education and defeating the object and benefits of the scholarship scheme, thereby resulting in grave injustice," said the plea.
Under the PMSSS scheme launched by the Centre in 2010-11, scholarships are given to meritorious students from Jammu & Kashmir to meet the expenditure incurred on tuition fees, hostel fees, cost of books and other incidental charges while studying in engineering and regular courses across the country.
Some 5,869 students from the state are being offered scholarships for admissions to different under-graduate courses during academic year 2019-20.
The top court had fixed August 15 as the deadline for admissions in technical colleges under All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE).
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