IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE TWENTIETH DAY OF OCTOBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE B.SESHASAYANA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 17713 of 2008 Between: Nimmakayala Swathi D/o.Nimmakayala Babu rep. by her natural guardian and Father Nimmakayala Babu S/o. Venkataratnam Aged about 35 Yrs R/o. Dabbakupalli, Vatsavai Mandal, Krishna District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 Government of Andhra Pradesh, rep. by its Secretary, Department of Higher Education, A.P. 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 Educational Officer, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Machilipatnam, Krishna District. .....RESPONDENT(S) 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 to issue a writ, order or direction more particularly one in the nature of writ of Mandamus, declaring the action of the respondents in denying the petitioner for admission into IIIT course for the academic year 2008-09 and instead of selected candidates from Vatsavai Mandal, Krishna District, who got lesser marks than the petitioner in SSC public examinations as illegal, arbitrary, discriminatory and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India and consequently direct the respondents to provide a seat and admit her in to the classes for the academic year 2008-09 at Nuzvid Campus, Krishna District and pass such other order or orders. Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.KRUPACHAND GOGINENI Counsel for the Respondent No.: GP FOR HIGHER EDUCATION The Court made the following : THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSSTICE B. SESHASAYANA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO. 17713 OF 2008 ORDER: 1. This writ petition has been ﬂed by Nimmakayala Swathi assailing the action of the respondents in not selecting her for admission into IIIT course in Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Knowledge Techologies in 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 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 from SC category, and 54 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 passed S.S.C. Examination in March, 2008 with hall ticket NO. 0396099 and secured 558 marks out of 600. Her grievance is that inspite of her securing 558 marks, she has not been included in selected list for admission in IIIT course in 2nd Respondent University. For better understanding of grievance of the petitioner, para 6 of the writ aﬃdavit needs to be noted and it is thus: “I submit that I belong to SC community and I came from a poor family eking out my livelihood through daily earnings based on agricultural working my village. With great diﬃculty, I have been able to provide education to my daughter till 10th standard. With her dedication and sincerity my daughter with Hall ticket No. 0396099 passed Board of Secondary Education (SSC) Public Examination March, 2008 and secured 558 marks out of 600. The RGU selected following candidates are showed in the selection list by the respondent from Vatsavai Rural Mandal. S.No. Name Marks Caste Category School 1. M. Chiruvarun 531 BC-D Merit ZPH, Vatsvai 2. N.Vikram 508 SC Rural ZPH,Vatsvai 3. P. Vamsi Krishna 543 OC Rural ZPH, Mangollu 4. M. Venu Gopal 538 OC Rural ZPH,Gopineni Palem 5. G. venkateswarlu 491 ST Rural ZPH,Vatvai 6. D. Rohini Chandrika 552 BC-D Rural Sri Venkateswara Convent, Vatsvai 7. P. Prasanthi 576 OC Rural -do- Except the student mentioned in the Serial Number 7 all other selected candidates including merit candidate are below rankers thanmy daughter. My daughter’s name placed in the waiting list dated 10-6-2008. But it was not considered by the respondent even after receiving the representation made from time to time. Except P.Prasanthi all the candidates who were selected under all categories in Vatsavai Mandal got lesser marks than my daughter. IN most of subjects, the petitioner secured highest marks than all the selected students. As per the selection criteria my daughter has tobe selected either mandal level or in State wide merit list. But it was not done by the respondents. The petitioner waited for admission under impression that her name will be consider in next selection list as her name shown in the waiting list. But, the respondents have not considered her name in the selection list which was ﬁnalized on 29-07-22008. Therefore, I am ﬁling this writ petition questioning the non-justiﬁcation in giving the grade points to the petitioner”. 4. 2nd Respondent ﬁled counter aﬃdavit and additional counter affidavit. It is stated in the additional counter aﬃdavit that the petitioner is not a top student in the school where she studied and one Nimmakayala Vikram is the top student The grade point secured by the petitioner and Nimmakayala Vikram have been stated in para 3 of the counter affidavit and it is thus. “In reply to para 6 of the aﬃdavit, it is submitted that the Writ Petitioner belongs to SC category from Annapurna High School Vatsavai school from Vatsavai mandal of Krishana District. She stood in the second place in her category, where as only one could be selected. She is the top student in three subjects and scored 19 grade points only. The student selected Nimmakayala Vikram from the same group of mandals was top student in three subjects and has the grade point score of 20 in the SC category. The details of the petitioner as well as the selected candidate are given below: Swathi is the top student in three subjects with the grade point score of 19 as shown in the scores below Subjects L2 L2 L3 MA SC SO TOT Marks 95 89 90 100 94 90 558 Grade 4 4 3 4 3 1 19 For example, Nimmakayyala Vikram I a SC candidate who got selected to this programme in the top student in THREE subjects with the grade point score of 20 Subjects L1 L2 L3 MA SC SO TOT Marks 94 81 85 79 74 95 508 Grade 4 4 3 2 3 4 20 5. When WPMP came up for consideration, with the consent of counsel appearing for the parties, the writ petition itself is taken for final disposal. 6. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned Government Pleader for technical information appearing for the respondents.. Admission Procedure as detailed in the prosecution reads as hereunder: 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. 7. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner has secured 558 marks out of 600 and she is top student in the school where she studied and therefore, she is eligible to be included in the selected list for admission in the 2nd respondent University. 8. Learned Government Pleader for Information Technology submits that petitioner is not top student in the school where she studied and one N. Vikram is the top student. The grade points secured by the petitioner and N. Vikram have been detailed in para 3 of the reply aﬃdavit. This factual aspect has not been controverted by the learned counsel for the petitioner. Since, no reply affidavit has been placed on record. 9. Such is the situation, the contention of the petitioner that the petitioner is a top student in the school has no substance. When the petitioner is not the top student in the school, the question of her inclusion in the selected list does not arise. 10. Accordingly, this writ petition is dismissed. No order as to costs. ________________________ Justice B. Seshasayana Reddy 20th October, 2008. KM THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSSTICE B. SESHASAYANA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO. 17713 OF 2008 20th October 2008