JUDGMENT

1. The instant bunch of appeals involving common questions of facts and law. The appellant seeks to assail the orders passed by the learned Single Bench of this court accepting the writ petitions preferred by the respondents herein and directing the appellant (respondent in the writ petition to afford admission to the respective petitioners in the PG Course of Ayurveda pursuant to the All India Ayush Post Graduate Entrance Test for academic session 2020-21.

2. The details of the Writ Petitions and the orders passed by the learned Single Bench are mentioned below in a tabular form :-

3. Learned counsel Mr. Salman Agha, representing the appellant (respondent before the learned Single Bench) urged that the direction given by the learned Single Bench to afford admission to the writ petitioners in the PG Course is contrary to the Rules and Regulations for Counselling applicable to the academic session in question as issued by the parent body, i.e. Dr. Sarvapalli Radha Krishan Rajasthan Ayurved University. He referred to the counselling procedure as stipulated in Clause 4(D) (v) of the guidelines, which reads as below, and urged that if at all, after repeated sessions of counselling, any vacant seats arise due to any reason, such vacancies are required to be filled up by upgradation on the basis of reservations and merit-cum- preference list from the candidates in the waiting.

"D. Counselling Procedure:

i. Admission will be subject to the rules & regulation of the respective institutes.

ii. Counselling Board reserves the right to correct any inadvertent error in any merit list and also in the prospectus.

iii. The Counselling Board shall conduct counselling of the candidates and allot the institute/college and Subjects taking into an account the scheme of distribution of reserved seats, merit lists of respective categories, the order of the merit of AIAPGET 2020, preference and availability of seats.

iv. The right of admission of any candidate who does not complete the prescribed internship by 31 December 2020 or as decided by the Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India will automatically stand cancelled.

v. Vacant seats arising due to any reason shall be filled by up-gradation on the basis of Reservations and Merit- cum-Preference List from the candidates in the Waiting.

vi. No TA/D.A. will be paid to the candidates for appearing in the Counselling."

4. He urged that the direction to afford admission to the writ petitioners in the PG Course is contrary to the mandate of the guidelines and it would result into denial of opportunity to the candidates who are entitled to seek admission on the basis of reservation and merit and hence, the impugned orders are violative of the right to equal opportunity enshrined in Articles 14 & 16 of the Constitution of India. He, thus, urged that the impugned orders, which have been passed in total ignorance of the guidelines should be reversed.

5. Per contra, learned counsel Mr. Yashpal Khileree, representing the respondents-writ petitioners, urged that the order passed by the learned Single Bench is based on equity. No other candidate apart from the petitioners was desirous of seeking admission. He submitted that the court was of the view that the interest of justice would be better served by giving admission to the respective writ petitioners in the PG Course because keeping seats vacant would not serve any cause and would tantamount to wastage of resources. He, thus, submitted that no interference is called for in the impugned orders and sought dismissal of the appeals.

6. We have given our thoughtful consideration to the submissions advanced at bar and have gone through the impugned orders passed by the learned Single Bench.

7. The undisputed factual scenario as emanating from the material available on record is that