The main legal point established in the judgment is that the petitioner-University lacked the locus standi to file the writ petition and that the cause of action must have wholly or partly accrued within the territorial jurisdiction of the court for the court to entertain the petition.

JUDGMENT

M. A. Chowdhary, J. - The instant petition has been filed to resolve the controversy relating to sanction the amount of scholarship in favour of the left over students as per the annexed list and to credit the same to the account of the petitioner-University as per the scale prescribed in guidelines of Prime Ministers Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) and as per the approved fee structure of the petitioner-University.

2. The petitioner has prayed for the following relief:-

'Issuance of appropriate writ, direction or order by commanding the respondents 1 and 2 to sanction the amount of scholarship comprising tuition fee, hostel fee, mess charges and other incidentals including the consequential renewals till the completion of the course in favour of the left over 271 students Session 2014-15 as per list contained in Annexure-XI and credit the same to the account of the petitioner University as per the scale prescribed in guidelines of Prime Ministers Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) and as per the approved fee structure of the petitioner-University.'

3. For appreciating the controversy in its right perspective, it shall be advantageous to go through the background of the case:-

(i) An Expert Group was constituted by the Prime Minister on 18th August 2010, under the Chairmanship of Dr. G. Rangarajan to formulate jobs plan for the State of J&K. The Expert Group gave valuable insights into the practical problems and offered innovative suggestions for employment generation and recommended number of measures and one of the recommendations made by the Expert Group was that the Special Scholarship Scheme would be launched for the students of J&K and under clauses 9.3 and 9.4 of the recommendations the framework of the scheme was prescribed. The said clauses of the recommendations are reproduced as under: -

'9.3 The scholarship scheme would be applicable for courses in all Government Colleges/Universities, Engineering Institutions, Medical Colleges and some select private institutions to be identified by the Government on the basis of some objective criteria. This merit cum means scholarship will be available to students from J&K who get admission in these institutions through the normal selection process subject to the parental income being below Rs.4.5 lakhs per annum. However, if the demand for these scholarships exceeds supply, the selection could be made on the basis of a set of criteria consisting of a combination of means cum merit. The Expert Group recommends that 5000 scholarships per annum may be awarded for the next 5 years. Out of the total, 4500 scholarships (90%) could be for general degree courses, 250 for Engineering (5%) and 250 for Medical studies (5%). These scholarships would not only cover, subject to a normative ceiling, the full tuition fee but also hostel fee, cost of books and other incidentals. A possible annual normative ceiling for programme fee could be Rs 30,000 for general degree courses, Rs 1.25 lakhs for engineering and Rs 3.0 lakhs for medical studies. The hostel fee and other incidentals could be capped at Rs 1.0 lakh per annum. The Expert Group recommends an outlay of Rs.1200 crores for this initiative, which will benefit 25,000 students of J&K over a period of 5 years. We expect that this five year window will be able to build capacities of the youth to enable them to compete in the normal course. This Special Scholarship Scheme in J&K will be in addition to other scholarship schemes currently available.

9.4. The success of the Special Scholarship Scheme depends on the ability of the students from J&K to get admission in the identified institutions. Some of the admission tests are tough and intensely competitive. The students may require additional coaching to clear the basic benchmarks set by these institutions. The Expert Committee recommends that the State Government may actively incentivize coaching centers from the rest of the Country to establish branches in the State. The existing educat