Bangalore: Groping in the dark to find a solution to the row with private professional college managements on seat-sharing and fixing an affordable fee, the Karnataka Government decided to postpone the process of selection from June 24 to July 8.

The Cabinet sub-committee set up to monitor the CET (Common Entrance Test) Cell imbroglio on a daily basis met under the chairmanship of Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and decided to postpone the counselling to select students for admissions to July 8.

In the meanwhile, the committee decided to recommend to the Government to enact a legislation governing the seat matrix and fee structure on the model of ones in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, besides expediting the filing of a petition before the Supreme Court seeking review of its earlier verdict, Minister for Industries P G R Sindia told reporters.

The meeting gave certain suggestions to the Law Department, Medical Education and Higher Education departments on the issues to be raised in the review petition, Sindhia, one of the members of the Cabinet sub-committee, said, but refused to give details.

The Cabinet sub-committee would meet on June 28, he said and declared that the already announced seat-sharing formula of 75:25, with Government having control on major share of seats, remained non-negotiable, virtually ruling out conceding private managements' demand of 50:50 ratio formula for Medical, Engineering and Dental seats.

Sindhia could not set any time-frame for enacting the new legislation, but argued that it would not negate the Supreme Court verdict, which fixed 50:50 per cent seat quota and fixing of uniform fee structure.

He said the apex court verdict gave certain powers to the State on seat-sharing and fee fixation and after studying the laws framed by Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, a decision would be taken on the nature of the State's legislation.

"We want to help students from middle class, backward classes, STs and SCs and the Government is committed to protect their interests," Sindhia said.