JUDGMENT :

NIKHIL S. KARIEL, J.

1. Heard learned Advocate Mr. Digant Popat appearing with learned Advocate Ms. Samruddhi Pawar for the petitioners of Special Civil Application Nos. 10207 and 10917 of 2023, learned Advocate Mr. Mitul Shelat appearing with learned Advocate Ms. Disha Nanavati for the petitioner in Special Civil Application No. 10454 of 2023 and learned Advocate Mr. D.G. Shukla appearing with learned Advocate Ms. Meshwa Bhatt for respondent National Institute of Design in all the petitions. Since the issue involved in this group of petitions is common, and since the petitioners were heard together, this Court deems it appropriate to decide these petitions by way of this common judgment. Since details with regard to individual petitioners may vary, for the sake of convenience, this Court seeks to state details of individual candidates in Chart Form for easy reference:

SCA No. Name of the petitioner Course applied for Rank obtained in NID Entrance Exam Qualifying Exam

No. 10207 of 2023 Bharti Gouda M. Des. (Design for Retail Experience) 7th Rank (All India) and 1st Rank (in OBC-NCL Category) Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Arts (BVA)

No. 10454 of 2023 Suraj Ramjanamram Mourya M. Des. (Information Design) 11th Rank (All India) and 1st Rank (in OBC-NCL Category) B. Tech in Information Technology

No. 10917 of 2023 Aniruddha Deshpande M. Des. (Product Design) 4th Rank (All India) B. Tech in Mechanical

2. The petitioners are all pursuing their Bachelor Degree and whereas in all the above cases, except in case of petitioner of Special Civil Application No. 10207 of 2023, all the petitioners have already appeared in their final year/semester examinations. The respondent National Institute of Design (hereinafter referred to as ‘NID’) had invited applications for admission to various Post Graduate Courses for the academic session commencing in the year 2023-24 vide a Notification dated 21.10.2022 and whereas, the petitioners had appeared in the entrance examination being the Design Aptitude Test (DAT) Prelims, which was held in the month of January 2023 and whereas the results were declared in the month of February 2023. Thereafter the Institute had conducted the DAT Main examination and whereas, after clearing the Main examination, the petitioners were given provisional admissions, subject to payment of fees and whereas all the petitioners had deposited the fees as directed by the Institute towards their first Semester fees. It appears that the NID had published an ‘Admission 2023-24’ Hand-book, which inter-alia contains general information with regard to the entrance examination, important dates with regard to admission process, details with regard to various courses and the seats available, the eligibility criteria, applicable reservation, mode of application, details with regard to DAT results and other information.

2.1. It would be relevant for the present purpose to mention here that as per the important dates, provisional admission would be given by first week of June 2023 and whereas in the eligibility criteria as found in the Hand-book it is inter-alia mentioned that the candidate must have passed Bachelor Degree examination at the time of document verification tentatively scheduled in May 2023. It is also mentioned that candidates in their final year of Bachelor Degree, whose Universities have not issued final degree certificate before the last date of application are eligible to apply, subject to passing all subjects without any backlog and whereas the candidates were required to submit provisional degree certificate issued by the University at the time of document verification tentatively scheduled in May 2023. It is also mentioned that candidates, who have not appeared for their final qualifying examination before document verification tentatively scheduled in May 2023 will not be eligible for admission.

2.2. Clause 8.8 of the Hand-book states about documents to be uploaded, whereas such contingency would ari