Maharashtra ACAP Rule 13 vacant-seat process

The State Common Entrance Test Cell, Maharashtra, has reiterated the process that colleges must follow for management-quota seats and for seats that remain vacant after CAP rounds (ACAP) in academic year 2026-27. Circular reference TED-1226 / C.R.7 / Admission Process / 2026 / 2135, dated 02.09.2026, tells every participating institute, candidate and parent that institute-level admissions for those seats must follow the Information Brochure directions, especially Rule 13, without shortcuts.

Colleges are bound to run the institute-level process only after all CAP rounds are fully complete. Every seat must be allotted strictly by inter-se merit among eligible applicants. Admission rules, schedules and the information brochure must be published on the college's official website. Interested candidates may apply directly at the college or submit an institute-level option form through their CAP-portal login.

This file is a vacant-seat and management-quota process circular under Rule 13. It is not the 07.09.2026 Cut-off circular that fixes 14 September 2026 as the final admission date, and it is not the 09.09.2026 public notice that bars unapproved extra fees. Keep the ACAP process rules separate from the statewide cutoff stamp and from the fee-protection warning.

Merit lists, daily attendance reports, and portal upload

After collecting direct applications and the candidate list received from the CET Cell, colleges must prepare an official merit list category-wise and display it on the notice board and official website. That transparency step is mandatory, not optional. Allotments that skip a published inter-se merit list breach the circular.

Colleges must also email daily date-wise reports of attended and admitted students or parents or relatives to the CET Cell / Admission Regulating Authority after each day's admission activity. The circular annexes two report formats: Table-1 for ACAP attended students and Table-2 for institute-level / management-quota attended students. Columns cover college merit-list number, candidate name, CET general merit number, percentile, admitted or not, allotted branch, and reason for non-admission.

Once a student's admission is confirmed, the institute must record that admission immediately on the official CAP portal and inform the CET Cell. Delayed portal reporting is not treated as a harmless paperwork lag. It undercuts the transparency and accountability the circular says must be maintained through the remaining vacant-seat window into mid-September.

Observers, CCTV, and warnings against agents

For selected private colleges, the circular provides that a principal, director or senior professor from a nearby government college will be appointed as observer for institute-level rounds. Observers will supervise document verification, merit-list preparation, fee payment and seat allotment, and will submit a daily compliance report to the competent authority after each day's process.

The entire admission process, especially document-verification and seat-allotment rooms, must remain under CCTV surveillance. Colleges must retain the video recording for the prescribed period and produce it when the competent authority asks for inspection, audit or complaint disposal. That recording duty sits alongside the daily email report duty.

Candidates and parents are warned not to fall for agents, middlemen or private counsellors who claim they can secure a seat before CAP rounds finish, and not to trust misleading social-media or private-link information. All admission information should be verified only from the CET Cell or the concerned institute's official website. Any shortcoming or negligence in following the Information Brochure will invite immediate strict legal and governmental action against the institute.

Circular TED-1226 / C.R.7 / Admission Process / 2026 / 2135 dated 02.09.2026 is the Maharashtra CET Cell restatement that management-quota and post-CAP vacant seats must follow Information Brochure Rule 13, inter-se merit, published merit lists, daily attended/admitted email reports, CAP-portal upload, observer oversight and CCTV retention. That process rulebook, not the 14 September cutoff or the unapproved-fees warning, is the story.