vil Appeals Nos
4885 91 of 1989
From the Judgment and Order dated 219
1989  6101989 of the Punjab  Haryana High Court in CWP No 1121889 and 12519 12520 12521 12593 12868  12463 of 1989
PH Parekh Manoj Swarup and JP Pathak for the Appellant
Krishan Kumar and Mehta Dave  Co for the Respondents
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by SAWANT J
These appeals are directed against two Orders of the Punjab  Haryana High Court by which the High Court has directed the appellant Institute to admit respondent students 1 to 8B to its B E course irrespective of their merits
The relevant admitted facts are that on May 24 and 25 1989 respondent No 9 Punjab University held a Com bined Entrance Test CET for admission to BE course Session 1989 90 conducted by 4 different institutes in cluding the appellant Institute
On June 26 1989 the University declared the merit list of students who appeared in CET June 30 1989 was the last date fixed for submit ting applications by students to individual institutes
The students were given choice of the institutions and they were required to state their choice in order of preference
The representatives from the 4 institutes met together at Chand igarh from 24th to 27th July 1989 to finalise the admissions tO the 4 institutes
The meeting of the representatives of the 4 institutes was necessary to ensure that the students were given the institutes of their choice in the order of merit subject of course to the students applying to the particular institutes and that the student did not get admission at more than one institute at a time
The Commit tee of representatives interviewed the students and awarded them the institutes of their choice in the order of their respective merits
Accordingly the appellant Institute drew up its merit list of candidates
Interviews were held in the respective institutes including the appellant Institute for filling up the reserved seats other than those 397 reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and also for filling up seats in general category which fell vacant subsequentIy as a result of the students leaving the appel lant Institute
On August 14 1989 a second round of inter views was held in all the institutes including the appel lant Institute for filling seats which fell vacant as a result of the students leaving the appellant Institute subsequently
Incidentally this was also the last date of admission to BE course as was notified in the prospectus of the appellant Institute
However the last date was extended to 25th August 1989 by an advertisement in the newspaper namely Tribune published on August 19 1989 wherein it was clearly mentioned that the admission to the course will be closed on August 25 1989
The advertisement was repeated in another newspaper namely the Times of India on August 20 1989
The appellantInstitute closed the admissions at 500 pm on August 25 1989
On this day the position of the appellant Institute was that the last stu dent who was admitted to the B E
Course was at serial number 1127 in the merit list prepared by the University as per the results of the CET 3
On August 30 1989 respondents 1 to 4 filed a Writ Petition No 112 1889 before the Punjab  Haryana High Court for a direction to the appellant Institute to extend its last date of admission and to admit them to the BE course in the appellant Institute alleging that six seats were lying vacant in the Institute
In the meanwhile as usual the first test of the BE course was held by the appellant Institute after six weeks of the commencement of the course
On September 19 1989 the appellant Institute filed its written statement to the writ petition objecting to the maintainability of the petition against the appellant Institute as it was not a State within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India
It was also pointed out in the written statement that since the past experience showed that some students left the Institute as soon as they got admission in the other institutes the appellant Institute had admitted 10 additional students to the BE course
The total seats available in the BE course in the appellant Institute were 180 and students at numbers 181 190 were admitted to meet this contingency
It was also pointed out in the written statement that the last date of admission to the course was fixed by the appellant Institute taking into account the said past experience as well as to put a seal of finality on the process of admission which would otherwise continue indefinitely
On September 20 1989 the appellant Institute also filed a short affidavit in the writ petition stating therein that the admissions to the BE course had closed on 25th August 1989 and no student had been 398 admitted thereafter
It was also pointed out that regular classes had begun and the first terminal examination had been held from 4th September 1989 to 9th September 1989 which carried weightage of about 30 marks
Hence the students admitted at the belated stage would not be able to cover up lecture attendance and no seat in excess of the total seats could be filled up
On September 21 1989 the High Court allowed the writ petition by proceeding on the assumption that more than half a dozen seats were lying vacant with the appellant Institute
The High Court held that belated admissions were something that the students seeking such admissions would worry about rather than the appellant Institute
The appel lant Institute was also directed to grant admissions to respondents 1 to 4 in the BE course forthwith
As pointed out by the appellant Institute on that day the factual position with regard to seats in the course was that out of 190 students who were granted admission 12 students had left leaving a total strength of 178 students
Since the last date for admission was August 25 1989 178 students had continued in the course with regular instructions and tests one of which was already held as stated earlier be tween 4th and 9th September 1989 six weeks after the commencement of the course
A further batch of Writ Petitions namely Writ Petitions Nos
125 19 12520 1252 1 12593 12868 12463 all of 1989 filed by respondents 5 to 8B respectively were allowed by the High Court on October 6 1989 directing the appellant Institute to admit the respective respondents to the said course
It also further appears that three other similar writ petitions filed by other students seeking admission to the course in the appellant Institute are pending before the High Court for preliminary hearing
The appellant Institute further points out that the second test of the said course was scheduled to be held from 23rd to 28th October 1989
It is not disputed before us that whereas the last student admitted on merit in the appellant Institute was at serial number 1127 in the merit list prepared by the Univer sity as per the Combined Entrance Test the respondent students were at the serial numbers in the said merit list as follows respondent No 1 1145 No 2 1147 No 3 116 1 No 4 1277 No 5 1259 No 6 1112 No 7 1266 No 8 1218 No 8A 1189 and No 8B 1245
Thus it will be seen that except for respondent No 6 who had not earlier applied for being admitted to the appellant Insti tute and had opted for some other Institute all the re spondents had secured lower numbers in the merit list
399 What is further the students who were at a higher serial number of merit list were still waiting for admission to the appellant Institute when the High Court directed the appel lant Institute to admit the respondent students
What is more even in their writ petitions before the High Court the respondent students had claimed no further relief than that they should be directed to be admitted to the appellantIn stitute according to their merit
The relief claimed in Writ Petition No 112 1889 may be reproduced here by way of illustration this Hon ble Court may please to issue a Writ of Mandamus directing the respondents to extend the date of admission and to admit the petitioners in the BE course as per their merits
emphasis supplied The High Court further not only ignored the fact which was specifically pointed out in the appellant Institute s affi davit in reply before it that there were no seats available in the appellant Institute whose capacity was only 180 seats but also the fact that there were more meritorious students than the respondents as per the CET who could not secure admission and who were waiting to be admitted to the appel lant Institute
The respondent students could get admission to the appellant Institute only if their comparative merits ordained it and not otherwise
They could claim no merit over other meritorious students merely because they had approached the Court for securing admission
There was further nothing wrong in the appellant Institute admitting 10 more students in the circumstances pointed out above
The Institute has a capacity of only 180 students
To meet the contingency of the students leaving it soon after admission they had admitted as they do every year 10 more students
As it turned out 12 of the students left leaving 178 students on the roll with only 2 vacan cies
The High Court could have directed only two students to be admitted and that too on merit
Admittedly there were more meritorious students than the respondents waiting in queue
The High Court thus travelled beyond its jurisdiction and not only directed more students than the Institute could absorb but also students who were less meritorious to be admitted
No reasons whatsoever have been given by the High Court for exercising its extraordinary writ jurisdiction so peremptorily which has resulted in injustice both to the appellantInstitute as well as to the students who stood higher in merit than almost all the respondent students except respondent No 6
We refrain from making any further comments on the impugned order
400 8
Since the respondent students stand already admitted and the more meritorious students cannot now avail of the seats given to the respondents due to lapse of time we do not propose to interfere with their pursuit of the course
It is for this reason that we are dismissing the appeals
In the circumstances the appeals stand dismissed but with no order as to costs
GN Appeals dismissed


Summary:
Staff Artists of All India RadioDoordarshan after complying with the initial requirements used to be appoint ed to various positions like Announcer News Readers Con ductor Music Compere Instrumentalists Producer and Script Writer etc on contract basis upto the age of 55 years
In May 1982 Union of India bifurcated the Staff Artists into two categories like i Staff Artists to be treated as artists and ii Staff Artists to be treated as Government Servants
These two sets of writ petitions have been filed by the Staff artists challenging the said Government deci sion conveyed through circular dated 351982 and calling upon the staff to exercise option by the end of December 1983 for final allocation to the two categories aforesaid
In the first writ petition direction is sought to the re spondents to treat the Staff Artists at par with regular government servants and to restrain the respondents from enforcing their direction in regard to their exercise of option and in the other writ petition the petitioners have asked for a direction to treat the staff artists as govern ment servants entitled to pensionary benefits
The Court by its order dated 2541988 on perusal of the letter together with the scheme Sent by the Director General of All India Radio and following its earlier deci sion in Civil Appeal No 384 of 1977 Union of India vs
MA Chowdhary  declared that all the staff artists of All India Radio are holding civil posts under the Government and they are governed by Article 3112 of the Constitution and accordingly inter alia directed the Govern ment of India to review the entire situation and to prepare a fresh scheme in accordance with law having regard to the nature of duties performed by each category of staff artists and further directed the case to come up for directions on 591988
Thereafter the Government of India formulated a scheme in compliance with the courts order and submitted it to the Court
340 Disposing of the writ petitions with directions this Court HELD While dealing with the Artists as a class it is necessary that their special status be borne in mind
It is a class of people who are indeed specially privileged either by natural gift or by their own culturing of the article This category of people cannot be equated with ordinary Govern ment servants for every purpose
348F The All India Radio and the Doordarshan in their normal functioning would to a considerable extent depend upon qualitative and efficient artists in order to make their programmes reach the desired level
348G The age old practice of the job of the staff artists being contractual whether short or long is being given up and contractual employment is being substituted by status based Government service
If there are really efficient Artists of different classifications who do not want to be branded as Government servants there is no immediate justi fication for discontinuing and disturbing them in toto
348H 349A Administrative scrutiny instead of judicial determina tion would be more helpful
The Court therefore directed that in the appropriate Ministry a High Power Committee be set up for examination of the objections with reference to the terms of the scheme and the final decision be taken by the Government within six months
The views expressed in the present decision be taken into account while dealing with the objections for purpose of finalising the scheme
349E F G