ORDER :

1. Leave granted.

2. The appeals have been preferred against the common judgment and order dated 07.08.2018, passed by a Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad for the State of Telangana and the State of Andhra Pradesh, setting aside a Government Order being G.O. Rt. No. 550 Higher Education (EC2) Department dated 30.07.2001 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘impugned Government Order’) to the extent the same permitted the filling up by reserved category candidates, of open and/or general category seats in institutions offering inter alia Medical and/or Dental Courses, which became vacant when meritorious reserved category candidates who had ranked well enough to secure those seats as general candidates, opted for other disciplines or institutions where they could only have secured admission as reserved candidates.

3. The relevant portion of the impugned G.O. Rt. No. 550 of 2001 is set out herein-below:

“5. After careful consideration and due examination of the issue relating to implementation of reservation of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes/Backward C