The central legal point established in the judgment is the recognition of professional degrees and the authority of the University in prescribing eligibility conditions for admission.

JUDGMENT :

(Rahul Bharti, J.)

1. In this Letters Patent Appeal we are confronted with a legal issue as to whether for admission to Bachelor of Law (LL.B) three years course in Jammu University governed by the eligibility condition prescribed by the University of Jammu, the appellant fulfilled the eligibility to be admitted to the course on the basis of him qualifying the entrance test.

2. The appellant aspired to seek admission in the University of Jammu for a 3 years’ course of Bachelor of Law (LL.B) and for that purpose appeared in the Jammu University Entrance Test, 2019 (“JUET” in short), conducted by the University of Jammu under Roll no.422122/- in which the appellant came to secure 38 marks against the qualifying marks of 30 under Open Merit Category and was thus successful.

3. After having so qualified the JUET, the appellant came to be apprised by the University of Jammu that admission for the course will not be admissible to him on account of status of his educational qualification.

4. For the JUET-2019, the University of Jammu had issued an Admission Brochure-2019 in which the eligibility for applying was prescribed as under:-

“A candidate to be eligible for admission to the Master Degree (other than M. Phil & Ph. D), Bachelor Degree (LL.B (3 years), B. Lib.I.Sc & B.P. Ed. and Diploma Programmes in the University, must have passed/ appeared in the final year of the qualifying Bachelor’s degree examination of 10+2+3 pattern (Honours or General) in Arts, Science, Home Science, Commerce or Business Administration or an examination qualifying for a professional degree of not less than 3 years duration or any other examination recognized as equivalent thereof, from a recognized university/institution with at least 40% of the aggregate marks or as specified (36% for the Scheduled Cast/Scheduled Tribe candidates).

Candidates who have passed degree course of two years duration under 10+2+2 or 10+1+3 pattern and thereafter after have passed bridge course of one year duration comprising Part-III of B.A./B.Sc./B.Com three years (General) course of the University of Jammu or any other recognized University shall also be eligible subject to the aggregate qualifying marks as indicated above. A candidate who has passed M.A./M.Sc./M.Com. Examination from the University after having passed B.A./B.Sc./B.Com. Examination under the old pattern of 10+2+2 or 10+1+3 shall also be eligible for admission under second reference category to:-

(a) a course where the minimum eligibility condition is pass in Three Year Degree (General) Course after 12 years of schooling.

(b) a Master Degree Course in an allied subject, if otherwise permissible under Statutes/ Regulations of the University.”

5. The appellant, in terms of his academic qualification, is a Matriculate from the Jammu & Kashmir Board of School Education, three years Diploma Holder in Civil Engineering from the J&K State Board of Technical Education and a Bachelor of Engineering B.E. (Civil) Professional Degree of three years through correspondence from Vinayaka Mission University Salem, Tamil Nadu read with qualification in All India Counsel for Technical Education (AICTE) – University Grants Commission (UGC) prescribed examination to validate his under-graduate engineering degree.

6. To put in other expression, the appellant’s qualification is 10+3+3 which was found by the University of Jammu to be not matching with the eligibility required as per Admission Brochure-2019 as referred hereinbefore and that led to the University of Jammu’s decision not to extend admission to the appellant despite him having qualified the entrance test for admission to Bachelor of Law (LL.B) three years course in Jammu University.

7. Aggrieved of denial of admission to him, the appellant came to approach this court with a writ petition WP(C) no. 2999/2019 seeking quashment of a communication dated 25.07.2019 issued by the Dean Academic Affairs, University of Jammu rejecting the appellant’s application for