JUDGMENT :

Jitendra Jain, J.

1. By this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the Petitioner seeks to challenge the communications dated 3rd December 2021 and dated 4th April 2022 of Respondent No.2-University, whereby the Petitioner has been declared as ineligible for enrolling and completing her 5 year LLB course.

2. Narrative of the events:-

(i) The Petitioner is a resident of Mumbai and aspires to pursue a law career.

(ii) On 5th July 2020, the Petitioner cleared her International Baccalaureate (I.B.), which is equivalent to 10+2 course. The Petitioner appeared in 6 subjects and obtained average 60% marks, which is equivalent to 22 points as per I.B. standard.

(iii) The Petitioner aspiring to pursue a law career applied for State Common Entrance Test of Respondent No.1-State for 5 year degree course in law beginning from academic year 2020-21. The Information Brochure issued by Respondent No.1-State CET Cell provided in paragraph 7.2 eligibility criteria for LLB-5 years course. The eligibility criteria was classified based on the State to which the candidate belongs. Part-A provided for Maharashtra State Candidature Candidates, Part-B provided for All India Candidature Candidates, Part-C provided for Jammu and Kashmir migrant candidature candidate and Part-D provided for children of NRI/OCI/PIO/CIWGC/Foreign National Students. The Petitioner applied for eligibility criteria as per Part-A being applicable for Maharashtra State Candidature Candidates.

(iv) On 8th October 2020, Respondent No.1 issued a notification under Maharashtra Unaided Private Professional Education Institutions (Regulations of Admissions and Fees) Act, 2015, for providing eligibility conditions and requirements for admission to various courses. Serial No.6 of the said notification provided eligibility conditions and requirements for admission to undergraduate course in law. The said eligibility conditions and requirements are pari-materia to what was stated in the Information Brochure referred to above.

(v) On 11th October 2020, Respondent No.1 conducted CET for LLB 5 year course and declared results of the said test on 27th November 2020. The Petitioner scored 77 out of 150 marks in CET. The score card issued by the Respondent No.1 stated that the score is valid for admission to LLB 5 year course for the academic year 2020-21, subject to fulfilling the eligibility criteria mentioned in Information Brochure published and displayed on the website, the said Information Brochure has been referred by us herein-above.

(vi) Based on Centralised Admission Process (CAP), the Petitioner was allotted admission in Respondent No.4-College. In the application form, the Petitioner gave all the information including educational details, wherein she mentioned that she has scored 59.83% from I.B. board in Science Stream. It is important to note that the table wherein details were to be filed does not have any column to specify the points as per I.B. course but what was required to be filled was only the percentage which the Petitioner filled as 59.83%.

(vii) On 31st March 2021, the Respondent No.1 issued a provisional allotment letter allotting seat to the Petitioner to take admission in Respondent No.4-College. The said allotment letter states that provisional admission is given based on documents uploaded by the Petitioner and subject to scrutiny and validation with original documents by the admitting college. The Petitioner was allotted a seat in the ‘Minority’ category. The said provisional allotment letter also contains instructions to be followed by the Principal of the admitting law college.

(viii) On 15th July 2021, Respondent No.4 forwarded the enrolment form along with supporting document of all the students for admission to law degree course for academic year 2020-2021 to Respondent Nos.2 and 3.

(ix) On 12th August 2021, Respondent No.1 informed Respondent No.4 about admission of 120 students to 5 year LLB course in Respondent No.4-College. The copy of