The abrogation of Article 370, which gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir, has impacted admissions to higher education institutions such as engineering colleges, which were conducted through a centralised process. Traditionally, each stream of engineering in a college would have one seat reserved for students hailing from J&K. The Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell has written to the All India Council for Technical Education seeking clarity on this matter, so that the seat metrics for the coming admission season can be finalised. The CET Cell conducts admissions for professional courses such as engineering, law, and architecture. CET test results are due to be declared soon, following which the CET Cell will have to declare the seat metrics for candidates.

"The confusion right now is whether to allow these students the traditional reservation that has been continuing for several years, or if their applications should be under the regular all India Quota where all students coming from states other than Maharashtra compete for the seat. Even though the number of seats under the J&K quota is just one seat on per stream per college, the total number adds up to around 1,400, considering that there are a total of 372 engineering colleges in the state and each will have a minimum of four streams. If there is no clarity on this before the seat metrics is decided, there will be chaos in the admission process later," said a senior official from the CET Cell's office in Mumbai.