MUMBAI: Even as city

principals are worried that a delay in

admissions will hit academic schedules, outstation students who have taken

to city colleges are worried about being left with little to do till things are sorted out.

The delay in admissions is on account of a

hearing against reservations in minority colleges. The hearing is slated to come up on Friday. Colleges are unlikely to start the session for first year before August due to the impending court case. The admission process was stayed by the state after the release of the first merit list.

The state challenged a Bombay high court order that quashed reservation for backward category candidates in minority colleges in November last year as overall reservations exceeded 50%. The court had set aside as “unconstitutional”, a circular that was issued by Mumbai University 16 years ago, stating that minority colleges need to set aside seats for ‘backward category’ candidates. Sharon Leong, a student from Bengal, said: “I’ve been in the city since a month. My home is far away so there’s no point going back and returning.” Selena, a student from Bhubaneswar who secured admission for BSc in the first merit list, said she spends most of her time at her hostel. “It feels as if we are wasting our time in the hostel,” she said.

Principals too are upset about the state’s inaction over six months. The

of a college in the central suburbs said the state has decided to appeal against the order “in the middle of admissions although it had six months to do so”.

Parag Ajgaonkar, principal of N M College, said, “It is mandatory for us to finish 90 days of teaching per semester... We may have to conduct the exam for the first semester in the second semester.” Agnelo Menezes, principal of St Xavier’s College, said that it won’t be possible for them to conduct internal exams for first year students. “We require at least two months of teaching to take the internal exam in August-end,” he said. Of 2,800-plus institutions in the state with ‘minority’ tag; about 300 are in the city.