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2020 Supreme(SC) 536
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
L. NAGESWARA RAO, HEMANT GUPTA, S. RAVINDRA BHAT, JJ.
SHREYAS SINHA - APPELLANT(S)
VERSUS
THE WEST BENGAL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF JURIDICAL SCIENCES & ORS. - RESPONDENT(S)
CIVIL APPEAL NO. 3085 OF 2020 (ARISING OUT OF SLP (CIVIL) NO. 1283 OF 2020)
Decided On : 09-09-2020
For the Appellant(s) :Vikas Singh, Anand Varma, Abhishek Prasad, Dhairya Madan, Advocates
For the Respondent(s):Vinayak Mehrotra, Amit Agrawal, Kushagra Agrawal, Radhika Yadav, Kunal Chatterji, Maitrayee Banerjee, Pravar Veer Misra, Advocates
IMPORTANT POINT
University can extend benefit of reservation from next Academic Session in case it is not possible to extend benefit of reservation from current Academic Session.
Headnote:
Education – Admission – Reservation – Admission to five-year law course offered by West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences – Decision of Executive Council of University was in terms of Amending Act as University resolved to provide compulsory reservation in view of fact that admission process had already been started and option of candidates to seek admission in various National Law Universities had already been given – Any change in choice of admission would not be possible at such a stage because of large number of candidates taking CLAT – University had decided to give benefit of reservation in terms of Amending Act from next Academic Year – Each of candidates intending to appear in CLAT is required to give three choices for admission into National Law Universities – Candidates had given these choices keeping in view reservation policy of each State – Since reservation policy of 30% seats was not available on the date when admission process was initiated, decision of University to provide reservation from next Academic Year cannot be said to be contradictory to provisions of Amending Act – Act is silent in respect of Academic Year in which benefit of reservation is to be given – Candidates have already applied and given option for admission in various National Law Universities before coming into force of Amending Act – University extended benefit of reservation from next Academic Session – Such decision is fair, reasonable and not arbitrary or capricious – Since Amending Act does not contemplate that benefit of reservation has to be granted in ongoing academic session, University was at liberty to decide to extend benefit from next academic session – No error in findings recorded by High Court – Appeal dismissed. [West Bengal University of Juridical Sciences Act, 1999] (Paras 13, 16, 19 and 20)
Facts of the case:
Challenge in the present appeal is to an order passed by Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court on 23rd December, 2019 whereby an appeal against the order passed by Single Judge on 22nd July, 2019 was dismissed. Grievance of the appellant is that 30% of the seats were reserved for the students domiciled in the State of West Bengal when the Act was amended on 21st May 2019. The Act had come into force before CLAT was conducted, but the benefit of reservation had not been extended to the students by the University in Academic Session 2019-2020.
Findings of the Court:
The Act is silent in respect of Academic Year in which the benefit of reservation is to be given. The candidates have already applied and given an option for admission in the various National Law Universities before the coming into force of the Amending Act. Therefore, the University extended the benefit of the reservation from the next Academic Session. We find such decision to be fair, reasonable and not arbitrary or capricious.
Result : Appeal dismissed
JUDGMENT
HEMANT GUPTA, J.
1. The challenge in the present appeal is to an order passed by the Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court on 23rd December, 2019 whereby an appeal against the order passed by the learned Single Judge on 22nd July, 2019 was dismissed.
2. The appellant had sought admission to the five-year law course offered by the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences1[for short, ‘University’] on the basis of the amendment in the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences Act, 19992 [for short, ‘the Act’] vide the Amending Act which came into force on 21st May, 2019. Such Amending Act inter alia provided for reservation of seats for students domiciled in the State of West Bengal to the extent of at least thirty percent of the total intake of the University. The Amending Act reads as such:
“1. (1) This Act may be called The West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (Amendment) Act, 2018.
(2) It shall come into force at once.
2. In the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences Act, 1999, after section 4, the following sections shall be inserted:-
4A. (1) The tuition fees in the University shall be such as may be determined by the State Government from time to time.
(2) The University shall allow free-ship in tuition fees to at least five per centum of their total strength to the students belonging to poor and economically backward classes.
Note.- The relevant criteria for determining poor and economically backward class shall be such as may be determined by the State Government from time to time.
(3) The University shall compulsorily make provision for reservation of seats for the students domiciled in the State of West Bengal to the extent of at least thirty percent of the total intake in the University.
4B. (1) Admission of the student in the University shall be made on the basis of merit.
(2) Merit for admission in the University may be determined either on the basis of marks or grade obtained in the qualifying examination or on the basis of marks or grade obtained in a relevant entrance examination conducted by the University or by Common Entrance Test conducted at the State or National level."
3. An advertisement was published on 5th January 2019 by a consortium of 21 National Law Universities in the country to conduct Common Law Admission Test3[for short, ‘CLAT’] on 12th May 2019 for which the last date of submission of application forms was 31st March 2019. The under-graduate admissions process herein provided for a choice of institution to the candidate, in which such candidate was willing to seek admission based on merit. The date of CLAT was later changed to 26th May 2019 in which the appellant participated and was ranked 731 in the All India Merit List, declared on 14th June 2019. As per the merit list and his choice, he was selected to get admission in National Law University, Odisha but admittedly, he did not join such institution.
4. The University had issued a Brochure to fill up 127 seats based on CLAT merit list. As per the Brochure, 74 seats were meant for general category candidates and 10 seats for West Bengal domiciled candidates including 4 seats for general category.
5. The grievance of the appellant is that 30% of the seats were reserved for the students domiciled in the State of West Bengal when the Act was amended on 21st May 2019. The Act had come into force before CLAT was conducted, but the benefit of reservation had not been extended to the students by the University in the Academic Session 2019-2020.
6. The stand of the University before the Learned Single Judge was that the consortium conducts the CLAT examination for admission of students from all over the country. The seat matrix as well as the general information about the said examination was uploaded on the website in January, 2019. The table towards the total allocation of seats across the categories was incorporated in the information uploaded. All the seats in the Domicile category of West B
