Chennai: The Madras High Court today (August 2, 2004) ordered preparation of a new merit list for admission to engineering colleges under the Government quota after revaluation of five "difficult" questions in the physical sciences paper of the entrance test conducted by the Anna University.

The order effectively postponed the already delayed counselling for admissions to engineering colleges in the State at least by a week.

Disposing of an appeal against a single judge order, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice B Subhashan Reddy and Justice Prabha Sridevan said the fresh list should be published within a week.

The court had reserved its judgement in the first week of July on a batch of writ appeals challenging different aspects of the single judge's order for revaluation of 10 of the 22 questions, which had either vague or wrong or had more than one answer. The revaluation had to be done with specific guideline, the judge had ordered then.

Disposing off another batch of writ petitions, seeking a review of admission of medical students, who got more marks under the improvement scheme, the bench held that these students could not be denied admission.

But, if students of both the categories obtained the same marks, the claim of the freshers should be considered first, the bench observed. The seats should not be allotted to the students, coming under the improvement scheme, considering their age, it said.