Dipankar Datta, J.

1. A tricky question emerges for decision on these two intra-court writ appeals, which are directed against separate but identical judgments of a learned Judge of this Court refusing to grant relief to the appellants leading to dismissal of their writ petitions. We have to decide whether to uphold the legalistic views of the learned Judge or, bearing in mind the character of the rules/regulations under consideration, the decisions of the Supreme Court cited at the bar as well as the Constitutional obligations of the State to secure equal opportunities to all, to the extent possible, we ought to interfere and thereby temper justice with some degree of empathy.

2. The facts and circumstances that have unfolded before us ought to be noted as a prologue to our decision.

A. The two appellants, Ananya and Nikita, are residents of Port Blair, the capital of the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands (hereafter the said UT). After succeeding in the Higher Secondary (10+2) examinations with fairly high marks, the appellants dreamt of becoming doctors. T