Madurai, June 15 (PTI): Madras High Court Bench has said officials of the Directorate of Technical education should have read the Tamil Nadu Admission in Professional Educational Institutions Act, 2006 along with AICTE rules before rejecting admission of a diploma Holder for BE course. Directing DTE to approve admission of a diploma holder to first year in a private engineering college, Justice D Hariparanthaman wondered what was wrong in it if he was qualified for lateral entry into second year(as per Tamil Nadu admission in Professional Educational Institution Act, 2006). The DTE had earlier denied approval to M Pandiraj, who joined first year BE (civil engineering) in Vickram College of Engineering (in 2009-10) after completing Diploma in Engineering in Leather Technology. Through a Dec 3, 2009 order, DTE refused to approve his admission stating that he was not eligible to join first year as he was a diploma holder. Even as the petition was pending, Pandiraj was allowed to appear for exams till the sixth semester. Relying on Tamil Nadu Admission in Professional Educational Institutions Act, the special government pleader contended that the petitioner did not write his higher secondary exams, the qualifying examination for admission in first year. Petitioner's counsel relied on AICTE rules which allowed a diploma holder to join second year rough lateral entry. Justice Hariparanthaman, in his orders held that the 2006 Act has to be read along with AICTE rules and said it was ironical that the petitioner could join second year BE course through lateral entry and not the first year BE course. He directed DTE to approve the petitioner's admission,and also publish results of his sixth semester exams.
