( 1 ) THE petitioner filed the Writ petition to issue a writ of mandamus to declare the action of Sri Venkateswara university, Tirupathi and the Rector and director of Admissions, S. V. University, in allotting the seat in the I year MBA course for the academic year 2002-2003 under NCC quota in favour of the 3rd respondent (A. Sivakumar) as illegal and arbitrary on the ground that the petitioner and the 3rd respondent possess equal qualifications and ncc certificates of similar rank but the petitioner secured State ICET rank of 35629 as against the rank of 3rd respondent of 52135 which is a lower rank than that of the petitioner.

( 2 ) THE petitioner submits that he has passed B. Sc. degree from S. V. University in ii Division with 55 marks and he has applied icet examination conducted by Osmania university vide Hall Ticket No. 17010212 and obtained a State rank of 35629 and region-wise rank of 6064. During the course of his degree he was selected to Air Force wing as a Cadet and he was designated as senior Under Officer under which capacity he participated in various camps such as, All india Vayu Sainik and he is holding c certificate in NCC issued by the Director, national Cadet Corps. He has represented the State of Andhra Pradesh in the rank of senior Under Officer at the annual NCC republic Day Camp and the Prime Minister s rally held at New Delhi from 5-1-2000 to 29-1-2000.

( 3 ) SIMILARLY, the 3rd respondent also attended the NCC Republic Day Camp and holds a c certificate issued by NCC authorities though not as a Senior Under officer but as Sgt. Senior Under Officer is the person who leads a delegation of the cadets from a given State. The petitioner secured the State rank of 35629 in ICET examination for the academic year 2002- 2003 but whereas the 3rd respondent secured State rank of 52135. The petitioner submits that as per the relevant order of the Government in G. O. Ms. No. 155 dated 17-11-2000 and the guidelines issued from time to time, certain quota has been reserved to the NCC (National Cadet Corps ). As per the Prospectus of Directorate of Admissions, sri Venkateswara University, the eligibility for a candidate seeking admission in MBA should pass a degree of 3 years course and also qualify ICET-2002 conducted by the osmania University. Rule 5 of the said prospectus deals with the reservation of seats. As per Rule 5 (d), 1 % of the seats are reserved for the National Cadet Corps. The allotment of NCC quota will be as per the priorities. Priority -I will be given to the ncc candidate who participated in the international Level under Youth Exchange programme. Priority - II will be given to the ncc candidates who participated in the national Level in the following order of priority: (a) Republic Day camp at New Delhi. (b) Not relevant (c) Not relevant (d) Not relevant priority - III is not relevant.

( 4 ) AS per Note 1 of Rule 5 of prospectus, priority within selected students in each category will be given in order of seniority of certificates i. e. , C, B and A certificates. As per Note 3, if there is more than one candidate in a particular priority, in the order of Priority indicated above, the selection shall be made based on the rank in ICET-2002. The petitioner submits that he and the 3rd respondent both of them got c certificate and both of them are entitled to be considered on priority - II as both of them have participated in the Republic Day Camp at New Delhi. As both the petitioner and the 3rd respondent are entitled to be considered in particular priority - II, the selection should have been made based on the rank in ICET-2002 examination. The petitioner and the 3rd respondent are entitled to be placed at priority II (a) as regards NCC candidates and though the 3rd respondent holds the same certificate and he has secured inferior rank and, therefore, the authorities would have preferred the petitioner over the 3rd respondent. The petitioner and the 3rd respondent fall in the sa