The main legal point established in the judgment is that the State Government cannot prescribe norms contradictory to those fixed by the AICTE, especially when there are more seats available than applicants. The AICTE's regulations are binding on the Engineering colleges, and they cannot hold separate entrance tests for admissions.

COMMON JUDGMENT

V.S. SIRPURKAR, J.

The writ appeals mentioned above will be disposed of by this common order since the subject was common. Few writ petitions also came to be filed by various Engineering Colleges in the State regarding the subject and they came to be tagged to the present writ appeals.

2. The common subject involved is the validity of Government Order, G.O. Ms. No.25, dated 13-2-2003, which emanates from G.O. Ms. No.222 Higher Education (J1) Department, dated 29-6-2000. These two Government Orders, issued by the Government of Tamil Nadu, pertained to the minimum qualifying marks required by the students of the Open Category (OCs), Backward Communities (BC), Most Backward Communities (MBCs) and De-notified Communities (DNCs).

3. In G.O. Ms. No.222, on the request of the Tamil Nadu Self-financing Engineering Colleges' Association, it was provided that for the admission in an Engineering college, a student must have secured the marks as per the table given below:

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BASIC QUALIFICATION

Community Higher Secondary (Academic/Higher Secondary (Vocational)/Diploma Holders

O.C. 60% average in the related subjects

B.C. 55% average in the related subjects

MBC/DNC 50% average in the related subjects

SC/ST Mere pass

It will be seen from the language of the said Government Order that the said request was made by the Engineering Colleges' Association as there were vacancies remaining under 'Payment Quota' and the number was increasing year after year, putting the Managements of the Engineering Colleges under great financial difficulties. The percentages of qualifying marks for students belonging to different communities arrived at by the Government in G.O. No.222 were lowered down and that is an admitted position.

4. It seems that after that Government Order came the celebrated judgment of the Supreme Court T.M.A. PAI FOUNDATION v. STATE OF KARNATAKA (1995 (5) SCC 220). Relying on the contents of paragraphs 66 and 70 and more particularly on the answer given to the question No.4 framed therein, the State Government reiterated this aforementioned Government Order in G.O. No.25. It was noted by the State Government that according to the law declared by the Supreme Court, the State had to ensure the educational standards and maintenance of excellence thereof and though the Managements of the unaided professional institutions, in the meeting held by the Government on 3-2-2003, had made a request to prescribe a "mere pass" at +2 level (Higher Secondary Examinations) as the minimum eligibility for admission to the professional institutions from the year 2003-04 as had been prescribed by the All India Council for Technical Education ('AICTE' in short), the Government did not see any reason to change the existing norms as provided by G.O. No.222. With the result, when the Government found from the lists supplied to it by the unaided professional institutions that some of the students, as per their categories, secured less percentage of marks than the prescribed qualifying marks. The Government had threatened to cancel the admissions of those students and the Anna University, to which all the Engineering colleges in the State are affiliated had also threatened to withdraw the affiliation granted by it earlier. It is with this idea that the present writ petitions came to be filed before the learned single Judge.

5. The first such writ petitions were W.P. Nos.17532 and 21451 of 2003. In these writ petitions, the aforementioned two Government Orders came to be assailed on the ground that the said Government Orders and more particularly the second one were unconstitutional as being contrary to the norms fixed by the AICTE, which was a body created under the All India Council for Technical Education Act, 1987 (in short 'AICTE Act'). The norms by the AICTE were brought into existence in exercise of the powers conferred by clauses (j) and (o) of Sec.10 read with Sec.23 of the AICTE Act. The said