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1998 Supreme(AP) 112
Andhra Pradesh High Court
Judges : B.SUBHASHAN REDDY, T.RANGA RAO
J.Sameerana - Appellant
Versus
A.P.State Council for Higher Education - Respondent
Decided On : 02-20-98
Headnote:
Andhra Pradesh Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admissions and Prohibition of Capitation Fees) Act, 1983 – Section 15 – A. P. Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission into Under-Graduate Professional Courses through Common Entrance Test) Rules, 1993 – Correctness of allocation of seats – Writ petitions raise important questions of law regarding the correctness of allocation of seats in private Engineering Colleges in the State of Andhra Pradesh – Held, All the admissions made will have to be disturbed which are in thousands and court do not want to upset and unsettle all those admissions because of the large repercussions to the student community and lot of time and risk involved therein for the acts already done. – Court show equitable consideration for such admissions which have already been completed for the years 1996-97 and 1997-98 and we are not disturbing them. – But, the Presidential Order shall be followed strictly and scrupulously from the next academic year onwards. – Court will be failing in our duly, if we do not also grant equitable relief to the writ petitioners who are only 3 in number, one of the year 1996-97 and two of 1997-98. – The said writ petitioners shall be accommodated for this academic year viz. 1997-98, as they have been denied admissions for no fault of theirs. – However, no student already admitted should be dislodged and the petitioners shall be accommodated in the vacant seats available (both free and payment) and their choice is limited to the available seats in the courses they wish to join. – Provisions of Andhra Pradesh Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admissions) Order, 1974 is applicable to all the private Engineering Colleges in the State of Andhra Pradesh including the minority institutions – Admissions shall be made-only in accordance with Para 5 (1) of the above Order by reserving 85% of the available seats in the respective local areas mentioned in Para 3 and for the local candidates mentioned in Para 4 thereof – Available seats shall be reckoned after making provision of 5% for NRI students – Such of the seats within the above 5% not filled with NRI students will again be treated as available seals for area reservation of 85% as in clause (2) above; (5) that 50% of the available seats out of 85% shall be free seats and the rest 50% shall be the payment seats – In minority institutions 50% of the available seats out of 85% shall have to be ear-marked for students belonging to minority community (maintaining the ratio of 1:1 in respect of free seats and payment seats) and the remaining 50% of available seats out of 85% shall be earmarked for others (maintaining the ratio of 1:1 in respect of free seats and payment seats) – Balance of the seats shall be filled up without reference to the Presidential Order mentioned in Clause (1 ) – Writ Petitions Allowed
( 1 ) THESE writ petitions raise important questions of law regarding the correctness of allocation of seats in private Engineering Colleges in the State of Andhra Pradesh.
( 2 ) WHILE the petitioners in W. P. Nos. 21283 and 21894 of 1996 had appeared for EAMCET-96 examination, the petitioners in W. P. No. 34392/97 had appeared for EAMCET-97 examination. The fact that the petitioners had appeared for such examination of EAMCET-96 and EAMCET-97 and respective ranks secured by them are not in dispute.
( 3 ) THOUGH EAMCET examination comprises Engineering, Agricultural and Medical Courses, the relevant subject in these writ petitions is Engineering. There are several Private Engineering Colleges run by the private bodies which are larger in number than Governmental Engineering Colleges run by the Universities. Dispute is with regard to mode of allocation of seats in the said private Engineering Colleges. While the Government is following the ratio of 42:36:22 respectively for Andhra University area, Osmania University Area and Sri Venkatesvvara University Area, after pooling all the seats, the petitioners seek reservation of 85% to the local candidates in respect of local areas. This is the crux of the problem which needs resolution by this Court.
( 4 ) WHILE there are more Universities than 3 in the State of Andhra Pradesh, broadly, they are referred to as Andhra University Area, Osmania University Area and Sri Venkateswara University Area and they are shortly called AU area, OU area and SVU area In the context of local area, AU area comprises of the districts of Krishna, Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, West Godavari, East Godavari, Guntur and Prakasam; OU area comprises of the districts of Adilabad, Hyderabad (erstwhile Hyderabad District split into Hyderabad and Raiiga Reddy districts) Karimnagar, Khammam, Mahaboobnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, Nizamabad and Warangal; and SVU area comprises of the districts of Anantapur, Cuddapah, Kurnool, Chittoor and Nellore.
( 5 ) HITHERTO, the private Engineering Colleges were collecting capitation fees for admitting the students. The Andhra Pradesh Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admissions and Prohibition of Capitation Fees) Act, 1983 abolished the capitation fees system. Consequently, the power hitherto exercised by the management of private Engineering Colleges to admit the students according to their own preference has been done away with. Admissions into Engineering Colleges, be it governmental, aided or un-aided, minority or otherwise, are governed by the provisions of A. P. Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission into Under-Graduate Professional Courses through Common Entrance Test) Rules, 1993 issued in G. O. Ms. No. 184, Education Department, dated 20-8-1993 read with G. O. Ms. No. 227 dated 22-7-1994. The said rules have been framed in exercise of the rule making power under Sections read with Section 15 of the above Act of 1983. The above Act is hereinafter referred as "the State Act, 1983" and the above rules as "the State Rules, 1993". Even though the validity of the State Act, 1983 is upheld, in view of the decisions rendered by the Supreme Court in Unnikrishnan J. P v. State of AP. , AIR 1993 SC 2178 and 4 cases of T. M. A. Pai Foundation v. State of Karnataka, AIR 1994 SC 13, (1994) 4 SCC 728, AIR 1994 SC 2372, AIR 1996 SC 2652, a scheme was evolved by the Supreme Court which has become the law of the land, and adopted by the State of Andhra Pradesh.
( 6 ) UNDER the State Rules, 1993, which govern the conduct of EAMCET and regulation of admissions, 50% are the free seats and other 50% are the payment seats. 5% of the total intake of the seats forming 10% of payment seats are reserved for Non Resident Indians (NRIs ). The other 40% of payment seats are for the locals in the State. In so far as the minority institutions are concerned, having regard to the constitutional provision, 50% are reserved for the students from minority commu
