K. Surendra Mohan, J.

An interesting question of public importance arises for determination in this case. The petitioner is an Association of the Managements of Private Self Financing Engineering Colleges. They challenge Ext.P5, an order of the first respondent by which, the practise of admitting students to Self Financing Engineering Colleges from a Pre-Normalization List prepared on the basis of the Common Entrance Examination conducted by the 2nd respondent has been done away with.

2. The facts of this case are more or less admitted. As already noticed above, the petitioner is an Association of the Managements of Private Self Financing Engineering Colleges : It is stated that they have more than 100 Colleges as members. For the purpose of making admissions to the various courses conducted by them, they enter into seat sharing agreements with the Government every year. As per the terms of such agreements, the Government is permitted to allot the students for admission to 50% of the total seats available. The said seats are generally referred to as 'merit seats'. Allotments to such seats are made on the basis of a Common Entrance Examination conducted by the Commissioner f