Judgment

K.G. Balakrishnan, J.—These appeals are filed by the State of Andhra Pradesh challenging the decision of the Division Bench of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in Writ Appeal Nos. 1571 of 1997; 84 of 1998; and 85 of 1998. By the impugned Judgment, the Division Bench partly confirmed the judgment of the learned Single Judge and held that Section 20(3)(a)(i) of the Andhra Pradesh Education Act, 1982 (in short “the A.P. Act”) is void and inoperative and the State Government had no legislative competence to pass such a legislation as the State provision was in the field already occupied by the enactment made by the Parliament, namely, All India Council of Technical Education Act, 1987 (hereinafter being referred to “AICTE Act”). It was held that in view of Section 10 of the AICTE Act with regard to establishment of technical institutions in general, the said special enactment legislated by the Parliament would prevail over the A.P. Act to the extent of its repugnancy.

2. The Writ Petitioners are the private educational institutions. They wanted to establish engineering colleges in the State of Andhra Pradesh. They applied to the authorities under the AICTE Act and approval was g