The Supreme Court on Monday referred the questions relating to admissions in and administration of professional colleges to a seven-Judge Bench.

A Bench, comprising Chief Justice R C Lahoti and Justice G P Mathur, was hearing a bunch of petitions filed by several institutions, private and religious, seeking clarification on a host of issues relating to admissions.

Institutions are still confused about the guidelines for admissions despite the fact that two other Benches had gone into the issue in detail in the past.

In the T M A Pai Foundation case, an 11-judge Bench had given several landmark rulings pertaining to admissions into professional colleges and the right of the minority educational bodies to run and administer institutions established by them.

When several doubts were raised on the judgment, a five-judge Bench had attempted to clarify them. But this year several petitions were filed seeking clarifications pertaining to the fixing of management quota in private unaided professional colleges, vis-�-vis the quota for meritorious students.

Many of these colleges have also sought a ruling on the quota for nonresident Indians.

Some private professional colleges also sought permission to conduct their own entrance tests even though the court had directed that an association of private colleges in each state should conduct such a test.