Judge recalls his order on engg admissions

chennai: admitting 'failure' on his part in considering two vital documents relating to  admission of students in engineering courses, a  madras high court judge has vacated his earlier  order passed on october 25, which directed the anna  university and the commissioner of tamil nadu  engineering admissions to permit students, who had  taken both nata as well as jee (main) in 2021, to participate in the counselling for b.arch course.          while admitting two writ petitions from the academic society of architects and a student, which prayed for a direction to the authorities concerned to permit the institutions imparting architectural education to admit eligible students who had participated in nata and jee (main) 2021, by drawing up a merit list of students under management quota in b.arch course, for the academic year 2021-22, justice n anand venkatesh had issued the interim direction on october 25.        later, when the presence of the important  documents having a bearing on the issue, was brought  to the knowledge of the judge, he withdrew the order  on wednesday.        the judge said that on that day, he had 'failed' to  take note of certain vital facts which would have a  bearing on the very relief that had been sought for in  the writ petitions. he did not take into consideration  the fact that a statutory notification issued by the  council of architecture had come into effect from november 1, 2020.         it had the force of law since it had already been placed before the lok sabha and the rajya sabha in  february and march this year, respectively and it had  been passed. this notification specifically mandated  the qualification for the aptitude test in architecture  as per appendix 'd' and a reference to appendix 'd'  showed that a candidate must pass the aptitude test  in architecture conducted by the council. the  aptitude test that was conducted by the council was  the national aptitude test in architecture (nata).         after the coming into force of this notification,  the same governed the field by fixing the admission  norms for b.arch course. this notification had been  followed by the tamil nadu government also and the  same was clear from the information and instructions issued to candidates, the judge said.         one more vital factor that was brought to the  notice of the court was the specific exemption that  was given by the council of architecture to the  central government institutions based on the specific  request made by the ministry of education through their letter dated july 27, this year.        it was clear from the above that after the coming into force of the statutory notification, the admission  for b.arch course was governed only by the  aptitude test conducted under nata and even the  central government had to seek for an one time  exemption for this academic year by making a specific request to the council of architecture.         admittedly, no such exemption had been  claimed by the state government and it had decided  to fall in line with the statutory notification issued by  the council of architecture, the judge pointed out  and closed the petitions for interim relief and posted  the main one for further hearing after four weeks.