The News Minute | September 12, 2014 | 09:50 am IST The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to allow the Andhra Pradesh Higher Education Council (APHEC) to conduct a second phase of counselling for filling up the large number of seats lying vacant in the engineering colleges.The bench comprising of Justice Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya and Justice Prafulla Chandra Pant refused the APHEC to hold a second phase of counselling to fill over 65,000 seats that were lying vacant on the ground that there was no guarantee that the Council would not ask for another extension, reports Times of India. The apex court said that it was the Council and other government agencies that were responsible for the seats lying vacant. The court asked the Council to complete admission process as per schedule directed earlier by the same court. The decision of the Supreme Court that the admission process be completed before August 31 and the refusal for a second counselling has left the colleges and the officials of the Higher Education Councils of both AP and Telangana in a quandary. Colleges will be conducting spot admissions to fill the vacancies but according to the guidelines that the two governments had prepared interviews are to be held next week. The officials fear that those admissions that are taken after the date would violate the apex court ruling. Senior officials from both states are confused about management quota admissions. Both governments view that Thursday’s judgement will be a blow to students waiting for the second phase counselling, reports the Deccan Chronicle. The present situation arose because the admission entrance test, Engineering, Agriculture and Medical Common Entrance Test (EAMCET), was held in May when the division of AP had not taken effect. The AP Reorganization Act stipulates that both states should continue the earlier procedure of admission and counselling for ten more years. However, after the bifurcation Telangana refused to reimburse the fees of those students from AP who were studying in Hyderabad or other parts of Telangana and this caused further bitterness among the two states. Telangana government also wanted to give its students a scholarship, Financial Assistance for Students of Telangana (FAST). The government approached the Supreme Court seeking to extend the counselling schedule till October 31. It told the court that it did not have enough staff to verify the certificates of the students. The court had declined to permit this and ordered that the counselling be over by August 31, the NDTV reported.