IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE EIGHTH DAY OF SEPTEMBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE B.SESHASAYANA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 12760 of 2008 Between: 1 Mukka Mahesh, S/o. Mukka Venkateswarlu, rep by his Father Mukka Venkateswarlu, S/o. Ramanaiah, aged 42 years, Agriculture, R/o. Karepalli Village, Singareni Mandal, Khammam Dist. 2 Vankdoth Sailatha, D/o. Vankdoth Mangya, rep by her Father Vankdoth Mandya, S/o. Baliya, aged 40 , Agriculture, R/o. Busstand Road, karepally, Khammam District. 3 Guglothu Shoban, S/o. Guglothu Nanya, rep by his Father guglothu Nanya, S/o. Venkatram, aged 52 years, R/o. Ramuthanda, Dornakal Mandal, Warangal District. ..... PETITIONERS AND 1 State 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 Chancellore. 3 The District Education Officer, Government of A.P., East Godavari District, kakinada. .....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 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 No.1 to 3 in not to admitting the petitioners into IIIT Course under Rajeev Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies for the admissions in August, 2008 and consequently to declare the merit list prepared by the respondents as illegal, arbitrary, violative of principles of natural justice besides violative of Fundamental Rights guaranteed under Constitution of India and pass Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.PARSAANANTH NAGESWAR RAO Counsel for the Respondent No.: GP FOR HIGHER EDUCATION The Court made the following : O R D E R: This writ petition has been ﬁled by the petitioners, who are three in number, assailing the action of the respondents in not including their names in the selected list for admission into III T Course in Rajeev Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies-2nd respondent. The Government of Andhra Pradesh has established Rajeev Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (herein after referred to as RGUKT) to cater to the educational needs of the rural youth. Three fully residential III Ts. were established under RGUKT, one in Basara, in Adilabad District, one in Nuziveedu, Krishna District and one in Idupulapaya, Kadapa District. The intake of each institution is 2,000 seats per year. The category wise reservation of seats are BC 25%, SC 15%, ST 6% and open 54%. Out of aggregate 6,000 seats, 15% i.e., 900 seats are earmarked for meritorious candidates at State level for the year 2008-2009. 900 seats are proposed to be ﬁlled up by 486 candidates from open category, 135 seats from SC category, 54 seats from ST category and 63 seats from BC community. The remaining seats 5,100 are earmarked for rural students and these seats are allocated to 23 Districts taking the population of the District as criteria. Accordingly, 196 seats are allotted to Khammam District. The seats allocated for each District are ﬁlled up duly following the Rule of reservation for SC, ST & BC. The petitioners 1 to 3 have pursued their SSC in Vidwan High School, Karepalli Village, Singareni Mandal and secured 553 marks, second petitioner secured 525 marks. The second petitioner belongs to ST category. The third petitioner secured 531 marks in SSC from Government A.H.S., Vusirikayalapalli, Singareni Mandal. The third petitioner also belongs to ST. The ﬁrst petitioner is aspiring admission under OC. category and petitioner Nos.2 and 3 are aspiring admission under ST category. Since their names do not ﬁnd place in the selected list, they approached this Court invoking jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. Rule Nisi came to be issued on 19.06.2008. An interim order has been passed directing the petitioners to submit their representations to the Governing Council of the University vide W.P.M.P.No.16455 of 2008. Pursuant to the interim direction, the respondent-University considered the representations and communicated the decision taken by it to the petitioners. Respondents ﬁled counter aﬃdavit. K.C.Reddy, Vice Chancellor of RGUKT has sworn to the counter aﬃdavit. The admission procedure has been stated in para 6 of the counter aﬃdavit, which reads as hereunder: Admission Procedure Additional counter aﬃdavit also has been ﬁled by respondent No.2. L.V.A.R.Sharma, Dean of RGUKT has sworn in to the counter affidavit. It is stated in the counter aﬃdavit that the ﬁrst petitioner studied in the school situated in Karepally Village, Aswaraopet Mandal of Khammam District, basing on the information furnished by the Board of Secondary Education. It is further stated in the counter aﬃdavit that the petitioners 2 and 3 are not the toppers in the respective schools under the reserved category. The question of including their names in the selected list does not arise. For better appreciation, I may refer to paras 4 to 6 of the additional counter affidavit, which reads as hereunder: “It is submitted that the university secured information from the Board of Secondary Education, A.P. As per the information furnished by the board, the ﬁrst petitioner studied in VIDWAN HIGH SCHOOL, KAREPALLY village, Aswaraopet mandal of Khammam district. Based on the said information his case has been considered in Aswaraopet mandal. The ﬁrst petitioner secured 23 grade points and stands at serial number 3 in the mandal list in OC category. Mullapudi rambabu from ZPHS, Aswaraopet is topper in all subjects with 24 grade points. The contention of the ﬁrst petitioner that he belongs to Singareni mandal and the respondent university purposefully shown in Aswaraopet mandal is false. As stated supra as per the information furnished by the Board, his case has been considered under Aswaraopet mandal. It is submitted that a communication has been given to the petitioner in pursuance to the directions of the Hon’ble Court in which the university stated that he belongs to Singareni mandal, which is a mistake, occurred in the said communication. I submit that on re-veriﬁcation of the information furnished by the board with reference to the petitioner it is aﬃrmed that his case has been considered under Aswaraopet mandal. The university did not commit any mistake in treating him under Aswaraopet mandal. The marks and grade points of the ﬁrst petitioner and the selected candidate Mullapudi Rambabu are given below: subjects L1 L2 L3 MA SC SO TOT Marks 92 84 89 98 93 97 553 Grade points 4 3 4 4 4 4 23 The selected candidate Mullapudi Rambabu from ZPS school, Aswaraopet and is the topper in all subjects with the grade point score of 24. Subjects L1 L2 L3 MA SC SO TOT Marks 90 82 84 98 96 94 544 Grade points 4 4 4 4 4 4 24 So far as the second petitioner is concerned, the information furnished by the board she studied in VIDWAN HIGH SCHOOL, KAREPALLY village, Aswaraopet mandal of Khammam district. As per the said date furnished by the board her case has been considered. The Second petitioner secured 18 grade points and she is second in rank in her school in ST category. She is top student in only two subjects. Whereas Banoth Naresh, who belongs to ST category has secured 18 grade points but stood top in three subjects in the same school. Following the procedure of grading on the curve, Banoth Naresh has been selected from that school in ST category. The marks and grade points of the second petitioner and the selected candidates are given below: subjects L1 L2 L3 MA SC SO TOT Marks 81 86 79 93 93 93 525 Grade points 1 4 3 3 4 3 18 Banoth Naresh from the same school and same category is the top student in three subjects and has the grade point of 18. subjects L1 L2 L3 MA SC SO TOT Marks 88 70 70 98 91 97 524 Grade points 2 2 2 4 4 4 18 It is submitted that the third petitioner belongs to ST category. As per the information furnished by the board, he studied SSC from Ashram High School, USIRIKAYALAPALLI from Yellendu mandal of Khammam district. As she is the topper at the school level in ST category her case has been considered. She secured 21 grade points and top in three subjects in ST category whereas the selected candidate from the same category, Bhukya suresh got 23 grade points and is topper in ﬁve subjects. Following the Grading on the Curve procedure Bhukya Suresh got selected in ST category and the third petitioner case could not be considered, as she is less in merit. The following marks and grade points of the third petitioner and the selected candidate are furnished below: subjects L1 L2 L3 MA SC SO TOT Marks 88 77 82 100 90 94 531 Grade points 4 3 4 4 3 3 21 The selected candidate Bhukya Suresh ST category from Yellendu progressive high school, Yellandu Mandal, Khammam district is the top student in ﬁve subjects with the grade point score of 23 as shown in the scores below: subjects L1 L2 L3 MA SC SO TOT Marks 80 81 77 80 81 89 488 Grade points 4 4 4 3 4 4 23 The allegation of the third petitioner, in order to deny the seat to her, the respondent university misclassiﬁed the mandal is incorrect. As stated supra, the case of the petitioners 1,2,3 have been considered under the respective mandals as per the information furnished by the board and the university did not commit any mistake in this regard. Heard the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and the learned Advocate General appearing for the respondents. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioners submitted that the respondents treated the petitioners 1 and 2 as students coming from Aswaraopet and in fact they are from Singareni rural mandal and therefore, their case is to be considered treating them as studied in Singareni rural mandal. Per contra, the learned Government Pleader appearing for the respondents submits that sofar as the ﬁrst petitioner is concerned, he has been treated as a student studied in Aswaraopet Rural Mandal, basing on the information given by the Board of Secondary Education. A further submission has been made that the petitioners 2 and 3 are not the toppers in their respective school and therefore, the question of considering their case for admission into III T Course does not arise. A fact remains that the ﬁrst petitioner has been treated as a candidate studied in Aswaraopet Rural Mandal. It is the contention of the ﬁrst petitioner that he studied in a school situated in Singareni Mandal and he has to be considered for the seats allotted to Singareni Mandal. His eligibility is required to be considered by the ﬁrst respondent University treating him as a student studied in a school situated in Singareni Mandal. With regard to petitioner Nos.2 and 3, they are not toppers in their respective schools and therefore, the question of their names being included in selected list does not arise. Accordingly, the writ petition is disposed of directing the ﬁrst petitioner to submit representation to the RGUKT-2 nd respondent with necessary proof that he studied in a school situated in Singareni Mandal and thereupon, the second respondent shall consider his application and pass appropriate orders, so as to enable him in the event of his ﬁguring in the selected list, to join the course for the academic year 2008-2009, within two weeks from the date of this order. No order as to costs. ________________________ B.SESHASAYANA REDDY J., Dt.08.09.2008 Note:Issue copy in three days. B/o (tjs) ASSISTANT REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER To 1. 2CCs to the Secretary, State of Andhra Pradesh, 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 Education Officer, Government of A.P., East Godavari District, kakinada. 4. 2CD copies