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 : 16186 of 2008 Between: Ch. Shankar, s/o. Sri Narayana, R/o. Lingampet Village and Mandal, Nizamabad District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1 Rajiv Gadhi Scientific Technological University, Rep by its Vice Chancellor / Dean, Saifabad, Hyderabad. 2 The District Collector cum District Magistrate, Nizamabad District. 3 The Mandal Educational Officer, Lingampet Mandal, Nizamabad 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 of mandamus, or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, declaring the action of the Respondents 2 and 3 in not selecting the petitioner's daughter Ch. Prathyusha who secured 547 out of 600 marks in SSC Examination for IIIT Course in the ﬁrst Respondent's university though selecting the candidates who secured less marks than the petitioner's daughter as illegal, arbitrary and discriminatory in nature and further direct the respondent NO. 2 to send the name of the Petitioner's daughter Ch. Prathyusha for admission into IIIT Course to the ﬁrst respondent and pass Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.C.RAGHU Counsel for the Respondent No.: GP FOR REVENUE The Court made the following : THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE B. SESHASAYANA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO. 16186 OF 2008 ORDER: 1. This writ petition has been ﬁled by Chinnam Prathyusha, aged15 years being minor represented by father and natural guardian Chinnam Shanker assailing the action of the respondents 2 and 3 in not selecting her for admission in IIIT Course in the 1st Respondent-University. 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. Petitioner appeared in the S.S.C. examination conducted in March, 2008 and secured 547 out of 600 marks. She studied Xth Class in A.P. Residential School for Girls, Pochampad. Her grievance is that no student from A.P. Residential School for Girls, Pochampad has been selected for admission into IIIT Course in the 1st respondent-University. For better understanding the grievance of the petitinoer, I deem it appropriate to refer para 4 of the writ affidavit and it is thus: “I respectfully submit that the ﬁrst respondent had been admitting the students in IIIT Course basing on the selection made by the second Respondent. The second Respondent has been selecting and forwarding the names of the students who have secured highest marks in each Mandal. My daughter in so far as Lingampet Mandal is concerned had secured 547 marks out of 600 marks and she is the top ranker in the Mandal. The second Respondent has prepared a list pertaining to the entire Nizamabad District reﬂecting various mandals, Schools and the names of the selected candidates and their roll numbers. However, the second respondent has not stated the marks obtained by each of the candidate. A perusal of the 1st list prepared by the second Respondent shows that Lingampet Mandal is at Serial Nos. 93 to 97. Only the candidates from Sri Gnanodaya High School, Z.P.H.S. (G) Lingampet, ZPHS Bhaavanipet, ZPHS (Boys) and ZP High school, MOT have been selected. No student from A.P. Residential Girls High School, Pochampadu SR Project has been selected. In fact had the 2nd Respondent taken into consideration that school also he could have information that my daughter had secured higher marks learnt that the candidates . I have reliably learnt that the candidates who have secured less marks than my daughter i.e. less than547 marks within the mandal have been selected ignoring my daughter. The Second Respondent deliberately while preparing the list of the candidates had concealed the respective marks obtained by the candidates.’ 4. 2nd Respondent ﬁled counter. The procedure followed in selecting the students for admission into IIIT course in Rajiv Gandhi Knowledge of Technologies is stated in para 5 of the counter aﬃdavit. The 2 nd respondent also ﬁled additional counter aﬃdavit It is stated in the additional counter aﬃdavit that the School of the petitioner has been considered and one Srilatha is the top student in the school. Para 3 of the Additional counter affidavit reads as hereunder: “It is submitted that the writ petitioner belongs to BC-B category from Lingampet Mandal of Nizamabad District. The petitioner stands in the Second Place in her school and is the top student in only two subjects with 13 grade points whereas SALLEGARIGE SRILATHA is top student in two subjects with the grade point score of 14 in the same school. The following date relating to the petitioner and the selected candidate with reference to marks in all subjects and grade points are given below:- Prathyusha is the top student in only TWO subjects with the grade point score of 13 as shown below: Subjects L1 L2 L3 MA SC SO TOT Marks 97 81 88 91 92 98 547 Grade 4 2 1 0 2 4 13 Sallagarige Srilatha (948641) from the same school is the top student in two subjects with the grade point score of 14. Subjects L1 L2 L3 MA SC SO TOT Marks 96 78 91 100 86 98 549 Grade Points 3 1 2 4 0 4 14 Thus the above referred student got selected based on the grading on the curve principle and the contention of the petitioner that she is more meritorious is factually incorrect. Total marks in SSC is not criteria only the grade points with more A+s are the basis for selection. The petitioner cannot compare with other categories. Goje Indira has got selected under OC merit. The petitioner stands at S.No. 24 in the Mandal Merit List. It is submitted that Ch. Venkatesh secured 24 grade points, 6A +s and he is top student in BC-B category. “ 5. When the writ petition came up for admission hearing with the consent of the counsel appearing for the parties, it is taken up for final disposal. 6. Heard learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and learned Government Pleader for technical education appearing for Respondents. 7. 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. 8. Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that the petitioner is a topper in the school and therefore, she is eligible to be considered for selection in IIIT Course in Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Knowledge Technologies. 9. Learned Government Pleader for Technical Education submits that the petitioner is not topper in the school and the question of including the name of the petitioner for admission in IIIT in Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Knowledge Technologies does not arise. 10. The grade points secured by Srilatha and the petitioner have been detailed in para 3 of the counter aﬃdavit. Indisputably the petitioner is not topper in the school where she studied, in which case, she cannot have any grievance for non- inclusion of her name in the selection list. 11. Accordingly, this writ petition is dismissed. No order as to costs. ________________________ Justice B. Seshasayana Reddy 20th October, 2008. KM THE HONOURABLE SRI JUSTICE B. SESHASAYANA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO. 16186 OF 2008 20T H OCTOBER, 2008 WRIT PETITION NO. 16186 OF 2008 20th October, 2008. WRIT PETITION NO. 16186 OF 2008 20th October, 2008.