ORDER:

U.DURGA PRASAD RAO, J.

The petitioners seek a writ of mandamus declaring the action of the respondents in not including the names of the petitioners in the schedule of the Andhra Pradesh Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) Act, 2016 (for short, ‘The APPU Act, 2016’) as arbitrary and violative of Articles 14, 16, 19 and 21 of the Constitution of India and also the provisions of the aforesaid Act and for a consequential direction to the respondent to include the names of the writ petitioners in the schedule of the said Act.

2. The petitioners’ case succintly is thus:

(a) The 1st petitioner is a Society registered in the year 1986 with an object to promote higher education, particularly technical and professional education. The 1st petitioner already established Physiotherapy, Nursing, Degree and Junior colleges at various places including at Ongole and Sattenapalli. While so, the 1st petitioner made an application dated 07.05.2018 to the respondent seeking permission to establish the 2nd petitioner University under the APPU Act, 2016. The petitioner submitted i