JUDGMENT :-

Swatanter Kumar, J.

1. Leave granted in all the Special Leave Petitions.

2. In the case of College of Professional Education and Others Vs. State of Uttar Pradesh [Civil Appeal No.5914 of 2011 decided on 22nd July, 2011], this Court recorded that for the academic year 2012-2013 and subsequent academic years, the institutions and the State Government have arrived at a broad consensus regarding the procedure and terms and conditions of admission, recognition and affiliation. The terms and conditions which have been agreed and had received the approval of the court were noticed in great detail in that judgment. For the academic year 2012-2013 and subsequent years, the following schedule for admission was provided :

“Table”

3. The Court further directed that for the academic year, there would be only one counseling. It was to continue for a period of 25 days and was to be conducted as per the directions contained in the judgment. Having provided for the various facets in relation to the manner, procedure and methodology to be adopted for admissions, the court also provided for the time by which affiliation should be granted to the colleges for the relevant academic year. Clause VI(b) of the judgment which has bearing upon the matters in issue before us reads as under:-

“(b) After the counseling is over, the concerned University will continue to allot the candidates from the above mentioned waiting list against the vacant seats till all the seats in the colleges are filled up. It is further submitted that the organizing university will provide students only to the existing B.Ed. College and all those B.Ed. Colleges which will get affiliation upto dated 07.07.2011 will not be considered for counseling to the year 2011- 12 and for the next consecutive years and onward the colleges which will be get affiliated on or before 10th of May of that year, would be considered for counseling.”

4. As is clear, the Court had fixed a cut-off date for affiliation. The colleges which were affiliated upto 7th July, 2011 only were permitted to participate in the counseling for the academic year 2011-2012. For the next consecutive academic years, the colleges which were permitted to participate in the counseling were the ones’ which received affiliation on or before 10th May of that year. In other words, the colleges which did not receive affiliation by the said cut-off date were not to be included in the counseling.

5. Some of the colleges in the State of Uttar Pradesh which had not received affiliation filed writ petitions challenging the order of the universities declining grant of affiliation to them. These writ petitions came to be dismissed by different judgments of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench, inter alia, but primarily on the ground that the court had no jurisdiction to extend the cut-off date as provided in the judgment of this Court in the case of College of Professional Education (supra).

6. In 17 special leave petitions, different petitioners have challenged the judgments of the concerned High Court before this Court. The petitioners in 15 writ petitions have approached this Court under Article 32 of the Constitution of India challenging the order of the university/authorities declining to grant affiliation again in view of the cut-off date fixed by this Court.

7. These writ petitions and appeals have raised common questions of law on somewhat different facts. Thus, we propose to dispose of these writ petitions and appeals by this common judgment. Before we dwell upon the real controversy arising for consideration of the Court in the present case, it will be necessary for the court to refer to the facts in some of the writ petitions/appeals.

Facts

Writ Petition (Civil) No. 276 of 2012

8. It is the case of the petitioner that Maa Vaishno Devi Shiksha Samiti, a society registered under the provisions of the Societies Registration Act, 1860 had been imparting education in various disciplines as