IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) FRIDAY, THE TWELFTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE B.SESHASAYANA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 14534 of 2008 Between: Kum. V. Sruti Reddy Minor, Rep. by her natural father V. Raghava Reddy Ex Service Man, R/o. Flat NO. 306, Eternal Apartment, Vinay Nagar Colony, Saidabad, Hyderabad. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowlege Technologies, rep. by its Dean, Office at Telephone Bhavan, Saifabad, Hyderabad. 2 Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowlege Technologies, Rep. by its Vice Chancellor and Chairman of Governing Council, Office at Edupulapaya, Kadapa District, A.P. 3 The A.P. State Council for Higher Education, Masab Tank, Hyderabad, Rep. by its Chairman. 4 Government of A.P., Department of Higher Education Rep. by its Principal Secretary, Secretariat Buildings, Hyderabad. .....RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Aﬃdavit ﬁled herein the High Court may be pleased to issue a writ or order or direction more particularly one in the nature of writ of Mandamus or any other appropriate writ declaring that the writ petitioner is entitled to admission in IIIT-2008 at Basara Under the Respondent nO.1 and 2 under the 2% CAP Quota for which the rules are formulated by Respondent Nos. 3 and 4 and it is further consequentially prayed that this Honourable Court may be pleased to direct the respondent No.1 and 2 to grant admission to the writ petition in IIIT -2008 at Basara, duly considering the representation on her behalf dt. 12-6-2008 and 17-6-2008 and pass such other order/s. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.S.R.SANKU & KAVITI MURLI KRISNA Counsel for the Respondents 3& 4: GP FOR HIGHER EDUCATION Counsel for the Respondents 3&4: GP FOR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY. The Court made the following : ORDER: This writ petition has been ﬁled by Kum. V.Sruti Reddy minor rep. by her natural father V.Raghava Reddy assailing the action of the respondents in not providing reservation to the Children of Army Personnel for admission into IIIT course for the academic year 2008-09. 2. Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (for short University) has been established as an autonomous organization by Government of Andhra Pradesh under the Act called the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies Act, 2008 (Act 18 of 2008) to educate the gifted rural students who may not have the beneﬁt of special coaching classes. The selection of students for admission into IIIT course in the University is based on the Local Best Model at the Mandal level. There are 6000 seats in all the three institutions of the University. 85 percent of the seats are reserved for students from rural schools of Andhra Pradesh, 15% seats are earmarked for meritorious students at State level. 900 seats are proposed to be ﬁlled up on the basis of statewide merit; 486 seats from open category, 135 seats from SC category, and 54 seats from ST category, 63 seats from BC-A category, 90 seats from BC-B category, 9 seats from BC-C category and 63 seats from BC-D category. The remaining 5100 seats are earmarked for rural students and these seats are allotted to 23 districts taking the population of the district as criteria. 3. The petitioner studied SSC in SPR School, at Aushapur village, Ghatkesar Mandal, Ranga Reddy District. She appeared for SSC examination with Roll No.1244839 in March, 2008. She secured 483 marks out of 600. She was aspiring admission in IIIT Course in the University. Her grievance is that the University has not made any reservation for the children of army personnel as provided in G.O.Ms.No.192 Education (EC.2) Department, dated 26.08.1993. For better understanding the grievance of the petitioner, I deem it appropriate to refer para.3 of the aﬃdavit ﬁled in support of the writ petition, and it reads as hereunder: “3. I submit that my daughter the writ petitioner herein is an aspirant to secure admission in IIIT-2008, under the jurisdiction of the respondent No.1 and 2, having secured 483 marks in SSC 2008, in addition to being a candidate having studied SSC in a rural area i.e, SPR school, at Aushapur village, Ghatkesar Mandal, R.R.Dist. In addition to this the ;writ petitioner deserves consideration for allotment of seat in her favour in view of the fact that she is the daughter of Ex-serviceman, falling within CAP category (Children of Army Personnel). The Government of A.P., the 4 th respondent herein, promulgated G.O.Ms.No.192, Education (E.C.2) Department, dated 26.08.1993, providing for 2% reservation in the matter of seats pertaining to Engineering Colleges, in the State of A.P., in favour of the children of Ex-Serviceman, constituting CAP category. Accordingly I made a representation to the respondent No.1, 2 and 3 dated 12.06.2008 and 17.06.2008 respectively, requesting to allot a seat in IIIT at Basara under the Telangana Region, to my daughter, the writ petitioner herein under the 2% CAP category. The writ petitioner topped the SSC in merit among the children of Ex-serviceman in the mandal where she studied. So far the respondentNo.1 to 3 have not considered the representation. When I personally contacted the respondents 1 and 2 they responded stating that it is the respondent No.3 the policy maker who has to direct them to consider allotting seat to my daughter under the 2% CAP quota. When I contacted the respondent No.3, he responded that, suitable decision would be taken soon and that the case of my daughter should be considered for admission, under the 2% reservation under the CAP category and that the necessary instructions would be forwarded to the respondent No.1 and 2, to consider allotting seat to my daughter, the writ petitioner. The ﬁnal selection list is going to be drawn on 15th of this month. However, the fact remains that, the fate of my daughter for admission has not been decided. Hence, the stand of the respondents 1 to 3 needs to be revealed. In similar circumstances this Honourable Court was pleased to direct the respondents to consider granting admission to the Physically handicapped persons under their quota, and in the General Council Meeting of the respondentNo.1 and 2, held on 01.07.2008, the case of the Physically Handicapped was considered whereas the case of the CAP category has not yet been takenup for consideration. In fact various reserved category unde45r B.C. (E) for Muslim reservation quota were also considered. Unfortunately there is no decision taken in the matter of CAP quota, in this regard Government of A.P., through Department of Sainik Welfare also got forwarded the candidature of the writ petitioner, to the respondent No.1, vide its letter No.4672/Admissions/2008-S1, dated 12.06.2008, with a request to consider her case under the 2% Ex-serviceman quota, so far there is no decision. Hence, this writ petition.” 4. Rule Nisi came to be issued on 08.07.2008. 5. The respondents entered appearance and ﬁled their counter aﬃdavit. The admission procedure has been detailed in the counter affidavit, which reads as under: “Admission Procedure: 1. Admission to each constituent institute of this University will be after passing Secondary School Certiﬁcate (Tenth Standard) Examination in their ﬁrst attempt in that academic year from the State of A.P. 2. The total intake of the students from Andhra Pradesh will be 6000 at the rate of 2000 per each institute at Basara, Idupulapaya and Nuzivedu. 3. There will be no entrance examination and admission will be strictly based on student’s performance in the SSC examination. 4. Out of the total number of seats, 15 % of seats (as per the Presidential Order),i.e. 300 seats per institute will be open for state level toppers irrespective of their region, rural/urban background, category etc., while respecting the reservation norms. 5. In order to promote national integration and promote diversity, about 100 seats per institute (over and above 2000) seats will be open for other state students and admission will be on the basis of their combined merit in the State Board/AIEEE and interview. Preference will be given to the students coming from rural areas of the country. 6. For 85% of the seats, a region wise allocation will be as per the provisions of Presidential Order and based on the Census 2001. Accordingly, the region wise allocation is as follows: Coastal Andhra-42%, Rayalaseema-22 % and Telangana-36 %. 7. The region wise allocation will be proportionately distributed among the districts and further among Rural Mandals as per the share of their population vis-à-vis the district based on the 2001 census. The Tables below show the seat allocation by region and by district for each reservation category. 8. Seats in the district will be divided amongst all educational institutes (government/local bodies, aided and private) located in rural mandals subject to the condition that not more than one student from each category will be selected per school. 9. The category wise reservation of seats will be BC-25%, SC-15%, ST-6% and Open-54 %. BC category will be further subdivided into subcategories as per Government Order, 33 percent of the seats in each category will be reserved for women candidates. 10. Rural Mandal is taken as a unit in selection of suitable candidates. 11. Assignments to Mandals may often lead to fractional seats. These fractions are added with other neighbouring Mandals until a single seat can be allotted to a group of Mandals. 12. The top student from each school in a rural mandal is selected. The best student is deﬁned to be the top student in more subjects than his/her classmates in the same school. 13. The selection of best student is based on the principle of grading on the curve. The principle of grading on the curve works as follows: The top 3% of the students in each school in a given subject is given Grade A+ (4 points); the next 7% is given Grade A (3 points), the next 10% is given Grade A(2 points), and the next 30% is given a Grade B (1 point). A cumulative Grade Point Score is calculated by adding the scores for all the subjects for each student in every school. 14. The Grade Point Score for all the students in the State is computed. The State wide Merit List candidates are selected representing the best students in each reservation category across the State. 15. When two or more students are the best students in the same number of subjects, then a tie-breaking procedure is applied as follows: (maximum points a student can get is 24). We ﬁrst select students who have the maximum number of subjects with 4 points). i) If there is more than 1 student who has the maximum number of subjects with 4 points, e.g., 2 students with 4 points in three subjects, then we break this tie by selecting the one with maximum Grade Point Score. ii) If there is further tie, that is they have same number of subjects with 4 points and Grade Point Score, e.g., 4 points in three subjects and 3 points in 1 subject, then we select the one with highest number of marks in English. iii) If there is further tie, then we select the one with highest number of marks in Mathematics. iv) If there is further tie, then we select the one with highest number of marks in Sciences. v) If there is further tie, then we select the one with highest number of total marks., vi) If there is a further tie, the older student (in age) will be selected. 16. After 900 students for the State-wide Merit list are identiﬁed, we proceed with the allocation of the remaining 85% of the seats. First, we identify the top student in each school within the Mandal, using the above tie breaking procedure where needed. From the top students in each school in the Mandal, the best students in the Mandal are selected based on Grade Point Score procedure as before. After the open category candidates are identiﬁed, selection is made in each reservation category based on merit within the category. Students are compared using the same criteria, i.e., one or more students with the largest number of A+s are selected (no more than one per school) based on number of seats assigned to the mandal, again using the tie breaking procedure, if necessary. At most 4 candidates, one each in OC, BC, SC and ST, can be selected from any given school. 17. The unselected best candidates in a mandal in each category will be added to a waitlist to be used in case a selected candidate does not apply.” The respondents also stated in para.16 of the counter-aﬃdavit that the governing council of the University has taken a policy decision to provide communal reservation and other reservations, which are referable to the Article 15(4) of the Constitution of India. The reservations for the children of Ex.- Servicemen, sports and NCC can be made only under Article 15(4) (1) of the Constitution of India and it’s not obligatory on the part of the university to provide reservations. 7. Heard learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and learned Government Pleader for Information and Technology appearing for the respondents. 8. Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that the petitioner made representations dated 12.06.2008 and 17.06.2008 to the University whereunder a request has been made to consider the reservation of seats for the Children of Army Personnel and the University has not responded to the representations. 9. In that view of the matter, the writ petition is disposed of directing the respondents to consider the representations, dated 12.06.2008 and 17.06.2008 submitted by the petitioner and pass appropriate orders thereon. No costs. ______________________ B.SESHASAYANA REDDY, J. Date:12th September, 2008. cs ..... REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER To 1.2CCs to 2.2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{RS}