IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) WEDNESDAY, THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF OCTOBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE B.SESHASAYANA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 14678 of 2008 Between: Manga Sushant Goud S/o.Manga Narayan Goud H.No.1-9-12/4/O/B/3-A Azampura Medak Rep.by his Natural Guardian and Father Manga Narayan Goud S/o.Bala Goud(46) ..... PETITIONER AND 1 Rajeev Gandhi University Of Knowledge Techonologies I.I.I.T Campus Gatchibowli Near Hi-Tech City Hyderabad rep.by its Registrar 2 The State of A.P Department of Higher Education A.P Secretariat Hyderabad rep.by its Secretary 3 The State Council for Higher Education Hyderabad rep.by its Secretary 4 The District Education Officer Medak at Sanga Reddy 5 Erugandindla Harikrishna S/o.Siddi Ramulu Fathenagar Medak 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 may be pleased to issue any appropriate order or direction particularly one in the nature of writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the respondents 1to 4 in not selecting the petitioner and selecting the less meritorious 5th respondent for admission into the 1st respondent University as arbitrary illegal and violative of Article 14&21 of the constitution of India and consequently direct the respondent university to admit the petitioner into I.I.I.T Course at I.I.I.T Basara(V) & (M) of Adilabad District. Counsel for the Petitioner: MR.T.V.RAMANA RAO Counsel for the Respondent Nos.1 to 4: GP FOR INFORMATION AND TECHNOLOGY The Court made the following : O R D E R: This Writ Petition has been ﬁled by Manga Sushant Goud assailing the action of the respondents 1 to 4 in not selecting him for admission into IIIT course for the academic year 2008-09. He also assails the selection of 5th respondent- Erugandindla Harikrishna for admission into IIIT course for the 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. Accordingly, 193 seats have been allotted to Medak District. 3. The petitioner studied SSC in Z.P.High School, Rajpally, Medak Mandal and District. He appeared for SSC examination with Roll No.1687492 in March, 2008. He secured 511 marks out of 600. He belongs to BC-B category. According to him, Erugandindla Harikrishna-5th respondent secured only 478 marks and he is less meritorious than him. He calls in question in this writ petition the action of the respondents 1 to 4 in selecting the 5th respondent for admission into IIIT Course. 4. Rule Nisi came to be issued on 09.07.2008. The respondents 1 to 4 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. 5. The respondents 1 to 4 also ﬁled additional counter- affidavit. It is stated in the additional counter aﬃdavit that the petitioner belongs to BC-B category and whereas the 5th respondent belongs to BC-A category and that one B.Mahesh is the top student under BC-B category having secured 24 grade points score. Para.3 of the additional counter-aﬃdavit needs to be noted and it is thus: “3. It is submitted that as per the information forwarded by the Board of Secondary Education, the Writ Petitioner belongs to BC-B category from Azampura Mandal of Medak District. It has been necessary to group multiple mandals into a single Mandal group, since the number of seats available in the BC-B category in Medak District is only 20 (as listed in the Brochure) distributed over 45 mandals. The group of mandals clubbed is Medak and Ramayampet of Medak District. The petitioner stands in the seventh place in his category whereas only one could be selected. He is the top student in only three subjects and has the grade point score of 21. The selected student B.Mahesh from the same category in the group of mandals is the top student in all the subjects with the grade point score of 24. The following data relating to the petitioner and the selected candidate with reference to marks in all subjects and grade points are given below: Subjects L1 L2 L3 MA SC SO Total Marks 87 73 85 83 87 96 511 Grade Points 3 3 4 3 4 4 21 The selected candidate B.Mahesh is the top student in all the subjects with the grade point score of 24 as shown in the scores below: Subjects L1 L2 L3 MA SC SO Total Marks 91 83 80 89 86 86 515 Grade Points 4 4 4 4 4 4 24 Thus, the above referred student though belong to Medak Mandal got selected based on the Grading on the curve principle and the contention of the petitioner that he is more meritorious is factually incorrect.” 6. Heard learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and learned Government Pleader for Information and Technology appearing for the respondents 1 to 4. 7. Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that the petitioner is the top student under BC-B category and therefore, his name is to be included in the selection list for admission into IIIT Course for the academic year 2008-09. 8. Learned Government Pleader for Information and Technology appearing for the respondents 1 to 4 submits that the petitioner is not the top student in the Mandal to which he belongs and one B.Mahesh is the top student having secured 24 grade points score and therefore, the said B.Mahesh has been selected under BC-B category. 9. Indisputably, the 5th respondent belongs to BC-A category and whereas the petitioner belongs to BC-B category and therefore, the petitioner cannot be compared with the 5th respondent. There is only one seat under BC-B category allotted to a group of mandals namely Medak and Ramayampet. B.Mahesh is the top student with grade points score of 24 under BC-B category. Whereas, the petitioner secured only 21 grade points score, in which case, it is B.Mahesh, who is the top student and he has been selected under BC-B category. Hence, there are no merits in the contention of the petitioner. 10. Accordingly, the writ petition is dismissed. No costs. ______________________ B.SESHASAYANA REDDY, J. Date:15th October, 2008. cs ..... REGISTRAR // TRUE COPY // SECTION OFFICER To 1.2CCs to 2.2CD copies Form-NIC-OGS/WP{KURR}