Biswajit Deba Sharma and Others vs State of Arunachal Pradesh and Others

D.N. Chowdhury, J.—The legitimacy of the orders cancelling the admission of the Petitioners in the respective institutions is the subject-matter of all these five writ petitions. Since the factual aspects as well as the legal aspects involved in the writ petitions are of the same nature, all these matters, therefore, are taken-up for hearing together for the purposes of adjudication of these cases.

The facts and circumstances leading to the institution of these cases are discussed hereinbelow. In the State-in-question, viz., the State of Arunachal Pradesh, there is no technical institution. Each year, certain quota of seats in the various technical institutions in the country are earmarked for the students from the different States by the Govt. of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, for allotment to the different States. For the State of Arunachal Pradesh also, the Central Government allotted certain number of seats in the various institutions. For that purpose, the State of Arunachal Pradesh conducted a Joint Entrance Examination for different categories of candidates which are indicated below:

Category I: Arunachal Pradesh Scheduled Tribe which also includes AIS/Central Govt./State Govt. employees belonging to APST.

Category II: Sons and daughters only of Non-APST State Govt. employees.

Category III: Sons and daughters only of Central Govt. employees serving within the territory of Arunachal Pradesh.

Category IV: All residual persons not included in any of the above three categories.

The State Government formulated guidelines accordingly defining/prescribing, amongst others, the eligibility criteria for the candidates. The Petitioners appeared in the Joint Entrance Examination for the year 1998 and the name of the qualifying candidates were published. Some complaints were made from different quarters regarding the anomalies in the nomination of the candidates. The State Government attended to those complaints and ordered the Chief Secretary to conduct an enquiry. The Chief Secretary found those complaints to be genuine and accordingly, ordered for cancellation of the names of those persons/candidates who were placed below in the merit list. The allotment of seats against those persons were also cancelled by separate orders and again persons/candidates were nominated as per the merit list. Sequel to the above exercise, the present Petitioners were admitted in various institutions on the strength of different Government orders. One such Order issued in favour of the Petitioner in writ petition (c) No. 323/99 read as follows:

OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF TECHNICAL EDUCATION, CHENNAI 600 025

Proceeding No. 31909/J15/978 dated 17.11.98

Sub: Admission 1997-98 - Technical Education-to Engineering College-Government of India reservation - allotment of candidates orders issued.

Ref: 1. Lr. No. F./7/1/97-TS. IIIA dt. 14.5.97 from the Government of India Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Education, New Delhi.

Letter No. SPWD-63/98-99 dt. 11.11.98 for the Joint Director (PWD), Government of Arunachal Pradesh, Itanagar.

Thiru/Selvi Biswajit Deva Sharma, S/of. J.C.S. Kakoty, a candidate nominated by the Joint Director, (PWD), Govt, of Arunachal Pradesh in the letter second cited against the seats reserved by Government of India vide Lr. (1) cited is allotted to Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai in the Computer Science Branch.

The admission ordered above is provisional subject to the following conditions:

(i) The candidate should produce the certificates for qualification, mark sheets and proof of age in original to the Principal of the College to which he/she is allotted. The candidate shall neither be admitted accepting the copies of these certificates, not shall/he/she be admitted provisionally on the basis of any undertaking that these certificates shall be produced at a later date or on specified time. Hence the candidate shall report to the Principal only with all certificates in original.

(ii) The candidate should produce the eligibility certificates from the Registrar, Madurai-Kamraj University, Madurai to the effect that the candidate is eligible for admission to the B.E. Degree Course before actual admission.

The candidate allotment is done over above the sanctioned intake.

The candidate is informed that he/she will be allotted only the branch noted in para (1) above. No requests for change of branch will be entertained under any circumstances.

The candidate is directed to report to the Principal, Thiagarajar College of Engg. Madurai for admission with all certificates in original including eligibility certificate from the respective University on or before 20.11.98.

Sd/- Illegible, 17.11.98 for Director of Technical Education.

Copies of the aforesaid orders sent to the candidate concerned, the Principal of the institution concerned and the Joint Director (PWD), Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh, Itanagar. As would be clear from the above order, the same was issued by the Director of Technical Education, Chennai, on receipt of nomination letter of the said Petitioner from the Respondents/State Government. Similarly the other Petitioners viz., Gracy Kumari was nominated for admission in the Electrical and Power Engineering course in the State of Maharashtra, Miss Arpita Battacharjee was nominated for undergoing Architectural Engineering course in the State of West Bengal, Shri Shashi Sankar was nominated for admission in the Electrical and Electronics Engineering course at the Alagappa Chettiar College of Engineering Technology, Kaiaikudi, in the State of Tamil Nadu and Shri Rajib Pathak was nominated for undergoing studies in Mechanical Engineering in the State of Kamataka, On their admission, the candidates started attending their classes, but all on a sudden, they received orders from the authorities of the respective institutions where they were undergoing studies, intimating them that the allotment/nomination orders issued by the State Government were cancelled and consequent to those communications, the Principals of the respective institutions removed their names from the Nominal Rolls of the respective institutions with immediate effect thereby cancelling their admission. Hence these writ petitions questioning the legitimacy of the aforesaid orders of withdrawal of the nominations and consequent withdrawal from the respective institutions as being unlawful, arbitrary, discriminatory and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.

The State Government did not file any affidavit. However, from the comments submitted to the learned Govt. Advocate for the State of Arunachal Pradesh by the State/Respondents, it is apparent that the Respondents admitted that the private Respondents who were nominated by die State Government, were nominated irregularly and not on merits and for the said irregularities, the State Government has initiated disciplinary actions against the concerned officers/authorities. The concerned competent authority has intimated that the Government has examined the irregularities in allotment/nomination of seats to students in various institutions outside the State from different angles and finally viewed that there might be possibility of losing the seats if the said irregularities are sought to be rectified since some of the States where to candidates were nominated for undergoing various courses have refused to admit the such students due to late nomination by the Government. Besides, the candidates who were already nominated would also suffer financially and otherwise and, therefore, the Government decided that the candidates who were sponsored on irregular basis, be allowed to continue with their studies. The Government accordingly issued the following order to the Director of Technical Education of the concerned State pertaining to cancellation of admission of nominees of the Government of Arunachal Pradesh:

Sir,

With reference to the above cited subject, I am directed to inform you that the Government of Arunachal Pradesh has again reviewed the case of the following candidates who were nominated by the Government of India, Ministry of Human Resources Development in your state.

Shri LikhaTania

Shri Hemant Kumar

Miss Paromita Baidya

Miss Soma Laskar

Miss S Ambili

Miss Nitu Dwivedi

Now, the Government of Arunachal Pradesh has decided that the above mentioned students should be allowed to continue their studies as nominated earlier by the Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh.

Further, the nomination of students made against the above mentioned candidates stands cancelled forthwith.

Kindly issue necessary instruction to the respective institution accordingly with intimation to this Government.

(Order as issued in respect of State of Maharashtra nominees only).

From the facts, it thus emerges that the persons who were below these Petitioners in the merit list, were allowed to be admitted despite the fact that those persons were nominated to the institutions unlawfully. The persons with higher merits were denied their rightful place/claim for being admitted in the various institutions. The Respondents after holding an enquiry sought to rectify the situation and ordered the Petitioners to get their admissions in the respective institutions. After allowing these persons to get admitted in the respective institutions, there was no justification to turn a volte face causing serious prejudice to these persons. The vested rights of those persons were taken away by the impugned actions in contravention of the principles of Natural Justice and in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. The orders of the State Government cancelling their nominations cannot, therefore, be justified on any count. It is also equally true that because of elapse of time, these persons cannot now be ordered to be re-admitted in the institutions in which they were admitted earlier. Situated thus, I am of the view that ends of justice will be met if a direction is issued to the Respondents, more particularly Respondent Nos. 1 and 2, to nominate these Petitioners in their respective streams for the session 1999- 2000 on the basis of the selection made earlier. Accordingly, the Respondents, more particularly the State of Arunachal Pradesh and the Secy. to the Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh, PWD Deptt., are directed to nominate the present Petitioners for undergoing studies in their respective streams in the session 1999-2000 AD without being subject to any further Joint Entrance Examination, against seats allotted by the Central Government, Ministry of Human Resource Development, to the State of Arunachal Pradesh for the year in question in any of the available institutions.

This order is passed on the facts and circumstances of the case which shall, however, not create any precedent.

The writ petition are allowed to fee extent indicated. There shall however be no order as to costs.