Coming down heavily on illegal and fraudulent admissions made under NRI quota in violation of norms, the Madras High Court has slapped a fine of one lakh rupees each on 18 private engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu. Disposing of a batch of 43 writ petitions filed by students and parents challenging the government guidelines on admissions issued on June 2 last year, Justice K Chandru of the Madurai bench of the court observed that the quota had been filled even before the guidelines were issued. The costs have been imposed to deter the colleges from misusing NRI quota. The Judge also directed the Director of Technical Education and All India Council for Technical Education to initiate appropriate action against the colleges if they violated the norms for admission under NRI quota in future.