Educational institutions must adhere strictly to statutory admission processes, as non-compliance undermines educational quality and is deemed illegal.

ORDER :

D.K. SINGH, J.

W.P.Nos.18100/2024 and 5388/2025

In W.P.No.18100/2024, petitioner No.1 is an Ayurvedic Medical College established in the year 1992. The said college is run by TMAE Society, currently registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. Petitioner Nos.2 to 21 have been admitted for the 1^st year BAMS course during the academic year 2022-2023 in petitioner No.1-college. In the second writ petition i.e., W.P.No.5388/2025, petitioner Nos.2 to 28 are students admitted in the 1^st year BAMS course for the academic year 2023-2024.

2. Petitioner No.1 is affiliated to the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), who are respondent Nos.2 and 4 respectively in the aforesaid writ petitions. The National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM), which is respondent Nos. 4 and 2 respectively, is the statutory body constituted under the provisions of the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Act, 2020 (‘NCISM Act 2020’). The NCISM is responsible to regulate educational and professional conduct and it is authorised as well as empowered to maintain the standards of Indian system of medicine. It is also empowered inter alia to approve the colleges for taking admission of the students as per the sanctioned intake. The NCISM is the body to oversee the admissions and sanctioned intake of students of different colleges approved by it and regulates the admissions. The petitioner-college has the sanctioned intake of 60 students for the BAMS degree. Petitioner Nos.2 to 21 in W.P.No.18100/2024 were admitted by the petitioner-college for the academic year 2022-2023 without undergoing the process of the counselling conducted by the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA). These students have been admitted by the petitioner-college on their own. Similarly, petitioner Nos.2 to 28 in Writ Petition No.5388/2025 have been admitted by the petitioner-college on their own, without the process of counselling conducted by the KEA.

3. The State Government has appointed the KEA for regulating the admissions of the students to the professional colleges through counselling process as per the inter se merit of the students including BAMS degree. The State Government provides college-wise and category-wise seat matrix for all the colleges and makes it available to the KEA for ‘communication to offer’ through online counselling. The entire admission process commences from registration, academic eligibility prescribed for each of the course, the type of seats available for each of the category including reservation category etc. This information is made available for the students through e- information bulletin published well in advance.

4. The petitioner-college, which has the intake capacity of 60 students for the BAMS course, have submitted a list of only 36 admitted students along with the original documents and prescribed fees to the RGUHS. After verification, the University approved the admission of only 26 students out of the list of 36 admitted students. The admissions of 10 students were not approved due to absence of KEA allotment letters which was communicated by the University in the letter dated 12.05.2023 to the petitioner-college.

5. The petitioner-college did not upload the admissions of petitioner Nos.2 to 21 in W.P.No.18100/2024 for the academic year 2022-2023 and as such, their names were not entered in the Admission Online Portal for the academic year 2022-2023. Petitioners Nos.2 to 21 have also not submitted the allotment letters to the KEA nor have they produced the original documents and also have not submitted the prescribed fees.

6. Similarly, in W.P.No.5388/2025, the KEA had allotted only 26 students to the petitioner-college after three rounds of counselling i.e., 20 after the first round and 3 each after the second and third rounds. The petitioner-college has admitted petitioner Nos.2 to 28 on their own.

7. The petitioner-college and the students have filed these writ petitions seeking approval of the