srk 1 wp-2544-11.sxw THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO.2544 OF 2011 Pooja Govardhan Chavare ... Petitioner Versus The State of Maharashtra Through the Secretary, Education Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai and others. ... Respondents Mr. Machindra A. Patil for the petitioner. Mr. S.N. Patil, Assistant Government Pleader for respondent-State. CORAM : MOHIT S. SHAH, C.J. & D.G. KARNIK, J. Wednesday, March 30, 2011 P.C. Rule, returnable forthwith. By consent, rule is heard forthwith. 2. Mr. S.N. Patil, AGP waives service for respodent-State. 3. In this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner seeks direction to respondent No.2-Director, Maharashtra State Education Research and Training Council, Pune to consider the petitioner as eligible for admission to D.Ed. course by rounding up 43.83% marks obtained by the petitioner at the qualifying examination viz. Higher Secondary Examination as 50%. 4. The petitioner passed the Higher Secondary Examination with 299 out of 600 marks and thus, secured 49.83% marks at the qualifying srk 2 wp-2544-11.sxw examination. The eligibility criteria for admission to D. Ed. course is 50%. The petitioner approached respondent No.2 for obtaining admission form for admission to the D.Ed. Course. The petitioner has however, not given admission form on the ground that the petitioner did not fulfill the eligibility criteria of 50% at the qualifying examination. Hence this petition. 5. The learned counsel for the petitioner has relied upon the impugned order dated 6th September, 2010 of the Nagpur Bench of this Court in Writ Petition No.4350 of 2010 and submitted that as per the direction given in the said order, the fraction of more than 0.5% is required to be rounded off. It is further submitted that the said writ petition has been ultimately allowed by judgment dated 15th March, 2011. Copy of the said judgment is also placed on record. 6. The learned Assistant Government Pleader has opposed the above submission and submitted that since the petitioner did not obtain 50% marks i.e. 300 out of 600 marks, the petitioner cannot be considered to be eligible. It is, however, not disputed that the eligibility criteria stipulated by the rule says 50% at the qualifying examination and not 300 out of 600 marks. Hence, as per the decision of this Court in Writ Petition No.4350 of 2010, 49.83% marks obtained by the petitioner will have to be rounded off as 50% and on that basis, the petitioner has to be treated eligible for admission to D.Ed. course. 7. We, however, state that in case there is a competition between two persons, one having secured 300 marks out of 600 marks in the qualifying examination and the other having secured 299 out of 600 total marks, the student with higher number of marks i.e. 300 marks will have to be treated as more meritorious than the student who had secured 299 marks out of 600 marks. srk 3 wp-2544-11.sxw 8. Subject to the above clarification, the petition is allowed and respondent No.2 is directed to consider the petitioner's application form for admission to D.Ed. course in the light of the principles laid down in the aforesaid judgment. Rule is made absolute in the above terms. CHIEF JUSTICE D.G. KARNIK, J.