IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) WEDNESDAY, THE SEVENTEENTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE B.SESHASAYANA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 14684 of 2008 Between: Mr. N.Siva Sankar Reddy, Minor, Reptd. by his father Penchal Reddy, N.Subbarami Rededy, R/o. Chiyyavaram Village, Railway Kodur Mandal, Kadapa District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies rep by its Dean, Near Telephone Bhavan, Saifabad, Hyderabad. 2 Govt. of Andhra Pradesh Rep by its Principal Secretary, Higher Education Department, Secretariat Bldg, Hyderabad. 3 Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education, rep by its Chairman, Mahaveer Marg, Masabtank, Hyderabad-28 4 The Director of Sainik Welfare, 2nd floor, Gruha Kalpa Opp Gandhi Bhavan, M.J.Road, Nampally, 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 of Mandamus declaring the action of the respondents in not providing 2% reservation for admission into IIIT Course for the Children of Ex-Serviceman as illegal, improper, unjust, arbitrary and violative of Art.14 and 16 of the Constitution of India and further direct the respondents to provide 2% reservation to the Ex-Serviceman children in the 1st respondents institution for the academic year 2008-2009 for admission into IIIT Course and further direct the respondents to provide admission to the petitioner's son into IIIT course under Ex-Serviceman quota for the academic year 2008-2009. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.KAMBHAM MADHAVA REDDY Counsel for the Respondents.: GP FOR INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY The Court made the following : ORDER: This writ petition has been ﬁled by Mr.N.Siva Sankar Reddy minor rep. by his father N.Penchal 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 Victory High School in Railway Kodur, Kadapa District. He appeared for SSC examination with Roll No.0718284 in March, 2008. He secured 519 marks out of 600. He was aspiring admission in IIIT Course in the University. His 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.5 of the aﬃdavit filed in support of the writ petition, and it reads as hereunder: “5. It is relevant to submit that the Government has taken a policy decision to provide reservation for admission into Engineering Colleges for the 2% seats reserved for the Children of Ex- Serviceman and the Defence personnel including the children of Border Security Force, and Central Reserve Police Force residing in Andhra Pradesh from the academic year 1993 – 1994 onwards through G.O.Ms.No.192 Edn. (EC-II) Dept. dt.26.08.1993. Priorities has been speciﬁed in the said G.O.1 noticed that the 1st respondent University did not provide reservation for Ex-serviceman children, therefore, my son could not get the admission. At that stage I made a representation to the District Collector, Kadapa through Zilla Sainik Welfare Oﬃcer on 23.06.2008. The said representation has been forwarded to the government but not action has been taken as on today and the matter is kept pending without taking any decision. The classes of the courses will be commenced within a short period, if my son is not provided a seat it would cause great hardship and failure of justice is also occasion. My son will come under the priority (4). I submit that in spite of the policy decision of the Government no reservation is provided in the 1st respondent institution for children of Ex-Serviceman. Thus, the action of the 1st respondent is not providing 2% reservation in admission into IIIT course for the academic year 2008-2009 as illegal, improper, unjust, arbitrary and violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India.” 4. Rule Nisi came to be issued on 09.07.2008. 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 representation dated 23.06.2008 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 representation. 9. In that view of the matter, the writ petition is disposed of directing the petitioner to submit a representation afresh to the respondents within a week from today, and the respondents are directed to consider the same and pass appropriate orders thereon within two weeks thereafter. No costs. ______________________ B.SESHASAYANA REDDY, J. Date:17th September, 2008. Note: Issue C.C. within three days. B/O cs ..... REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER To 1.2CCs to 2.2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{RS}