Achintya Malla Bujor Barua, J.

1. Heard Mr. K.N. Choudhury, learned Senior counsel for the writ petitioners. Also heard Mr. D. Saikia, learned Senior Additional Advocate General, Assam for the respondents under the State of Assam as well as the Vice Chancellor and the Registrar of the Assam Science and Technology University and also the respective Principals of the five engineering colleges, Mr. L.P. Sarma, learned counsel for the authorities in the GU, Mr. N.C. Das, learned Senior counsel for the authorities in the DU, Mr. S Saikia, for the authorities under the All India Council for Technical Education and Mr. A Chamuah, learned counsel for the authorities under the University Grants Commission.

2. The writ petition, being WP(C) No. 7071/2017 has been preferred by 21 students of different semesters of the five Government Engineering colleges in the State of Assam, namely, the Assam Engineering College, Guwahati (AEC for short), Jorhat Engineering College, Jorhat (JEC for short), the Bineswar Brahma Engineering College, Kokrajhar (for short, BBEC), Jorhat Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat (JIST for short) and Barak Valley Engineering College, Silchar (BVEC for short).

3. In the writ petition, the letters dated 28.02.2017 and 25.02.2017 of the Joint Secretary to the Govt. of Assam, Higher and Technical Education Department to the Director of Technical Education, Assam requiring the Principals of AEC and JEC to initiate the process and apply for affiliation under the Assam Science and Technology Guwahati University (ASTU), as required under Section 37 of the Assam Science and Technology University Act, 2009 (for short, ASTU Act, 2009) for the session commencing from July/August, 2017 has been assailed. Further a letter of 29.08.2017 of the Registrar ASTU addressed to the Principals of the respective Engineering colleges, requesting them to complete the process of affiliation for the session 2017-2018 and the, letter dated 02.11.2017 of the Registrar GU addressed to the Principals of AEC and BBEC informing that the registration of 1st Semester students for the Session 2017-2018 had been stopped with immediate effect had also been assailed in the writ petitions with a further prayer for directing the Registrar of GU to resume the online registration of the 1st Semester Students of AEC and BBEC for the Semester Examinations from 29.11.2017.

4. In WP(C) No. 73 of 2018, the communication dated 04.08.2017 of the All India Council for Technical Education (in short AICTE), by which the Additional Chief Secretary to the Government of Assam in the Higher and Technical Education was informed that the five institutions namely, AEC, JEC, JIST, BBEC and BVEC are affiliated to the ASTU has been assailed. It is worth taking note of that a challenge to the said communication of 04.08.2017 informing about the affiliation of the five aforementioned institutions with ASTU is in fact also incorporated in the writ petition being WP(C) No. 7071 of 2017 inasmuch as, the purport and purpose of assailing the letters of 28.02.2017, 25.02.2017, 29.08.2017 and 02.11.2017 as indicated above as well as the direction sought for to direct the Registrar of GU to assume online registration of the first semester examination of AEC and BBEC on 29.11.2017 is also to assail the decision of the AICTE to grant affiliation to the aforesaid five institutions under the ASTU. It is another factor that the said communication of 04.08.2017 was not assailed directly in the WP(C) No. 7071/2017 but was assailed in a subsequent writ petition. The aforesaid conclusion assumes significance inasmuch as in the WP(C) No. 73/2018, notice had not been issued and the matter was taken up for its final consideration along with WP(C) No. 7071/2017. It was done so on the submission of the respective learned counsel for the parties that the pleading and materials put forth in WP(C) No. 7071/2017 would also cover all the issues and aspects that have been raised in WP(C) No. 7