IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) FRIDAY, THE FIFTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE B.SESHASAYANA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 13102 of 2008 Between: Gunda Pravallika D/o.G.N.Hari Prasad Minor,rep.by her father and natural guardian G.N.Hari Prasad, S/o.G.Pullayyasetty, aged about 43 years Occ:Business, R/o.H.No.2-2-56,Showkarpet,Allagadda Post and Mandal, Kurnool District ..... PETITIONER AND 1 The State of Andhra Pradesh, rep.by its Secretary Department of Higher Education, AP Secretariat, saifabad, Hyderabad 2 Rajeev Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies IIIT Campus, Gatchibowli,Near Hitech city, Hyderabad rep.by its Vice Chancellor. 3 The District Education officer, Government of AP Kurnool District 4 The Revenue Divisional Officer, Allagadda Division Kurnool District .....RESPONDENTS Petition under Article 226 of the constitution of India praying that in the circumstances stated in the Aﬃdavit ﬁled herein the High Court will be pleased to issue an appropriate writ or order or direction more particularly one in the nature of writ of mandamus declaring the action of the respondents in not selecting the petitioner for giving admission into IIIT Course for the academic year 2008-09 though the petitioner secured 562 marks and second Topper in Allagadda Mandal, Kurnool District and topper in Raghavendra English Medium School as illegal, arbitrary, and violative of Articles,14 of the Constitution of India and contrary to the Rules and Regulations of the 2nd respondent University and consequently direct the respondents to given admission to the petitioner into IIIT course for the year 2008-09. Counsel for the Petitioner: Mr.A.PRABHAKAR RAO Counsel for the Respondents: GP FOR HIGHER EDUCATION The Court made the following : ORDER: This Writ Petition has been ﬁled by Gunda Pravallika, minor represented by her father G.N.Hari Prasad, assailing the action of the respondents in not including her name in the selected list for admission into IIIT Course for the academic year- 2008-09 as illegal and arbitrary. 2. The petitioner studied in Sri Raghavendra English Medium School at Allagadda and passed SSC in ﬁrst division with Hall Ticket No.0672348 in the academic year 2007-08. She secured 562 marks. She became the second topper in Allagadda Mandal and top student in the school. The Government of A.P. established Rajiv Gandhi University Knowledge of Technologies (RGUKT)-2nd respondent in 2008 to cater to the educational needs of the gifted rural youth. The 2nd respondent/(RGUKT) University released the selected list for admission into IIIT course. But the petitioner did not ﬁnd her name in the selection list. Hence, the present Writ Petition. 3. To understand the grievance of the petitioner, I deem it appropriate to refer paragraph No.7 of the Writ affidavit which reads as follows: “I submit that my daughter studied in Sri Raghavendra English Medium School at Allagadda and my daughter passed SSC in 1st Division with Hall Ticket No.0672348 in the academic year, 2007-08 with 562 marks and secured second topper in Allagadda Mandal and topper in the school. She should have been selected in the open category or atleast in the reservation category for women. But the respondents did not select her for IIIT course for the reasons best known to them, but whereas they have selected less meritorious students who secured marks less than what my daughter secured in SSC. The material papers ﬁled along with the writ petition clearly discloses the students who got less marks than my daughter was given admission i.e., one Kum. P.Anuradha got 522 marks was selected in IIIT course under open category. The petitioner did not ﬁnd place even in the waiting list. The respondent authorities did not take into consideration the school in which my daughter studied X class. No student from the school name i.e., Sri Raghavendra English Medium School, Allagadda were selected in IIIT course, the action of the respondents in making selection process in identifying the students is illegal and contrary to the procedure laid down by the 2nd respondent herein and contrary to the principles of natural justice”. 4. Rule nisi came to be issued on 24-06-2008. The respondent ﬁled common counter aﬃdavit in W.P.No.11983 of 2008 & batch. 5. Sri K.C.Reddy, Vice Chancellor of the 2 nd respondent University has sworn to the counter aﬃdavit. The procedure followed in the selection of the candidates for admission into IIIT course of the 2nd respondent/RGUKT has been detailed in the counter aﬃdavit. Paragraphs 5 and 6 need to be noted and they read as hereunder:- “5. There are over 10000+ rural schools in the State and the goal is to select and provide world class education upto 1% of these students who would otherwise never have an opportunity for such a high quality education. The students will be admitted to 6 years integrated course after passing 10th Standard. There is no entrance test and the merit is based on “Grading-on-the curve” on the marks secured in the Secondary School Certiﬁcate (Tenth Standard) from out of the applicants taking rural mandal as a unit by following the rule of reservation provided under the admission procedure. The initial two years period will be utilized for enhancing social, technical and communication skills of the students to make them more productive and concerned citizens along with the 10 +2 curriculum. 6. Admission procedure 1. Admission to each constituent institute of this University will be after passing Secondary School Certiﬁcate (Tenth Standard) Examination 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 Nuzvid. 3. There will be no entrance examination and admission will be strictly based on student’s performance in the SSC Examination. 4. Out of total 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 implementing the reservation norms. 5. In order to promote national integration & 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. The preference would be given to the students coming from rural areas of the country. 6. For the 85% of seats, region wise allocation will be as per the provisions of Presidential order and based on the Census 2001. Accordingly, the region wise allocation for 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. Appendix –I shows the seat allocation by region and by district for each reservation category. 8. Seats in the district would 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 would 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 seats under each category would 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- 0n-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). A cumulative Grade Point Score is calculated by adding the scores for all the subjects for each student in every school. 6. Heard learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and the learned Government Pleader for Information and Technology appearing for the respondents. 7. Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that the petitioner is a topper in the school where she studied having secured 562 marks and therefore she is eligible to seek admission in the 2nd respondent University to pursue IIIT course. 8. Learned Government Pleader submits that the petitioner is not a top student in Allagadda Mandal and there are three students from Allagadda mandal who secured more number of Grade points than that of the petitioner. 9. Learned Government Pleader placed on record the Grade Points secured by the petitioner as well as the three other students namely Peerla Hasen; Bandaru Pullayya; and Nagala Sudheer Kumar. He submits that the reasons for not including the petitioner in the selected list have been communicated to her by the 2nd respondent University. The Grade points secured by the petitioner as well as the three other students are as follows: Petitioner: Pravallika. Subjects L1 L2 L3 MA SC SO TOT Marks 91 92 86 100 97 96 562 Grade points 2 4 4 4 4 3 21 Peerla Hasen:- Subjects L1 L2 L3 MA SC SO TOT Marks 92 92 82 95 91 89 541 Grade points 4 4 4 4 4 4 24 Bandaru Pullayya:- Subjects L1 L2 L3 MA SC SO TOT Marks 87 77 84 93 96 93 530 Grade points 4 4 4 4 4 4 24 Nagala Sudheer Kumar:- Subjects L1 L2 L3 MA SC SO TOT Marks 88 67 73 94 86 85 493 Grade points 4 4 4 4 4 4 24 10. The above referred grading points indicate that the petitioner is not the best student in Allagadda Mandal and therefore, the contention of the petitioner that she is entitled to allotment of seat in the 2nd respondent University being the best student in Allagadda mandal has no merit. 11. Accordingly the Writ Petition is dismissed. There shall be no order as to costs. ____________________________ B.SESHASAYANA REDDY,J 05th September, 2008 Tsy 1 The Secretary, State of Andhra Pradesh, Department of Higher Education, AP Secretariat, saifabad, Hyderabad 2 The Vice Chancellor, Rajeev Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies IIIT Campus, Gatchibowli,Near Hitech city, Hyderabad. 3 The District Education Officer, Government of AP Kurnool District 4 The Revenue Divisional Officer, Allagadda Division Kurnool District 5. 2CCs to 6 2CD copies