JUDGMENT :

1. Nehru College of Educational and Charitable Trust (‘the Trust’ for the sake of brevity) is registered under the Indian Trust Act, 1882. The said Trust is stated to be running numerous educational institutions in the States of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The 1st petitioner is the Chairman and Managing Trustee whereas the 2nd petitioner is the Principal of the “Nehru Academy of Law” which is one among the educational institutions managed by the Trust. The petitioners have approached this Court aggrieved by Ext.P5 communication dated 18.08.2020 issued by the 1st respondent as per which, the Nehru Academy of Law has been included among the list of Colleges that have been granted affiliation to new programs for the year 2021 and 2022, however, by limiting the intake to 40 seats instead of 60 seats as requested for.

2. Brief facts which are required to narrated for disposal of the writ petition are as under:

The Nehru Academy of Law started its functioning from the academic year 2015-2016 after obtaining approval of the Bar Council of India (‘BCI’ for the sake of brevity) and a