JUDGMENT

SAWANT, J. :- These appeals are directed against two orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court by which the High Court has directed the appellant-Institute to admit respondent-students 1 to 8B to its B.E. course irrespective of their merits.

2. The relevant admitted facts are that on May 24 & 25,1989, respondent No. 9, Punjab University, held a Combined Entrance Test (C.E.T.) for admission to B.E. Course (Session 1989-90) conducted by 4 different institutes including the appellant-Institute. On June 26, 1989, the University declared the merit list of students who appeared in C.E.T. June 30, 1989 was the last date fixed for submitting applications by students to individual institutes. The students were given choice of the institutions and they were required to state their choice in order of preference. The representatives from the 4 institutes met together at Chandigarh from 24th to 27th July, 1989 to finalise the admissions to the 4 institutes. The meeting of the representatives of the 4 institutes was necessary to ensure that the students were given the institutes of their choice in the order of merit, subject, of course, to the students applying to the particular institutes and that the student did not get admission at more than one institute at a time. The Committee of representatives interviewed the students and awarded them the institutes of their choice in the order of their respective merits. Accordingly, the appellant Institute drew up its merit list of candidates. Interviews were held in the respective institutes including the appellant-Institute for filling up the reserved seats other than those reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and also for filling up seats in general category which fell vacant subsequently as a result of the students leaving the appellant Institute. On August 14,1989, a second round of interviews was held in all the institutes including the appellant-Institute for filling seats which fell vacant as a result of the students leaving the appellant-Institute subsequently. Incidentally, this was also the last date of admission to B.E. course as was notified in the prospectus of the appellant institute. However, the last date was extended to 25th August, 1989 by an advertisement in the newspaper, namely, Tribune published on August 19, 1989 wherein it was clearly mentioned that the admission to the course will be closed on August 25, 1989. The advertisement was repeated in another newspaper, namely, the Times of India on August 20, 1989. The appellant-Institute closed the admissions at 5.00 p.m. on August 25, 1989. On this day, the position of the appellant Institute was that the last student who was admitted to the B.E. course was at serial number 1127 in the merit list prepared by the University as per the results of the C.E.T.

3. On August 30,1989, respondents 1 to 4 filed a Writ Petition No. 11218/ 89 before the Punjab and Haryana High Court for a direction to the appellant-Institute to extend its last date of admission and to admit them to the B.E. course in the appellant-Institute alleging that six seats were lying vacant in the Institute.

4. In the meanwhile, as usual, the first test  of the B. E. course was held by the appellant Institute after six weeks of the commencement of the course. On September 19, 1989, the appellant-Institute filed its. written statement to the writ petition objecting to the rnaintainability of the petition against the appellant-Institute as It was not a State within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India. It was also pointed out in the written statement that since the past experience showed that some students left the Institute as soon as they got admission in the other institutes, the appellant-Institute had admitted 10 additional students to the B.E. course. The total Seats available in the B.E. course in the appellant-Institute were 180 and students at numbers 181-190 were admitted to meet this contingency. It was also pointed