The main legal point established in the judgment is that regional reservation must have a reasonable basis and should not be arbitrary or fanciful, but should bear a just, rational, and intelligible relation with the object sought to be achieved by the classification.

THE CHIEF JUSTICE & T.S. SIVAGNANAM, J.

1. All these writ petitions raise a common question and therefore they are heard together and disposed of by a common order.

2. These batch of cases could be broadly classified in two groups, those cases challenging the decision of the Government of Puducherry in providing regional reservation for admission to professional decree courses offered by Government sponsored colleges in Union Territory of Puducherry as unconstitutional and violative of Article 14, 15 & 16 of the Constitution of India and other group of cases challenging the Special Regional Allocation of seats for Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam Regions.

.3. Thepetitioner in W.P.No.13130 of 2010 is the Federation of Puducherry Parents-Students Affected by region wise reservation, an association, registered under the provisions of the Societies Registration Act, 1860. The other writ petitions are by students, who have applied for admission to the professional decree courses for the academic year 2010-11. The case of the petitioners in all these writ petitions could be summarized as follows:-

.The Union Territory of Puducherry consist of four regions of which Puducherry and Karaikal are situated near Tamil Nadu, Yanam situated near State of Andhra Pradesh and Mahe situated near Kerala State. The Government of Puducherry by G.O.Ms.No.44, dated 05.04.2010, reserved 21 seats for Karaikal region, 7 seats for Mahe region and 7 seats for Yanam region in the engineering colleges in the Union Territory with a condition that the candidates in these three regions should have studied in the respective region for atleast three years continuously including the year in which the candidate appeared for the qualification examination, in order to become eligible to get admitted against the seats reserved for the three regions, the said Government order came into effect from the academic year 2001-02. Subsequently, by another order in G.O.Ms.No.99, dated 10.08.2006, the special allocation in admission to various professional decree courses offered by Puducherry Government sponsored colleges, for the candidates of Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam regions was made on percentage basis and was fixed at 18%, 4% and 3% respectively. The Government order also prescribed the criteria to be satisfied for claiming admission under the special regional allocation of seats and the Government order came into effect from the academic year 2007-08. The Government of Puducherry by G.O.Ms.No.58, dated 28.04.2010, constituted a Consultative Committee to review the Regional Reservation on seats reserved in professional decree courses for the candidates of geographically distributed regions of Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam. The Government order also stipulated the composition of the Consultative Committee with the Honble Chief Minister, Puducherry as its Chairman.

.4. According to the petitioners all of a sudden, the Government announced that the remaining seats, which is approximately 75% after allocation of seats to Karaikal, Mahe & Yanam regions will be reserved for Puducherry region students only and a Government order to the said effect was issued in G.O.Ms.No.65, dated 21.05.2010, which is reflected in the Information Bulletin (hereinafter referred to "as the Bulletin") published by the Centralized Admission Committee (CENTAC) for admission to professional courses in Union Territory of Puducherry for the year 2010-11. According to the petitioner, the above pattern of reservation restricts the scope of admission to the professional colleges for residents of Puducherry region and a resident of Karaikal, Mahe or Yanam can never compete for more than the seats allotted for their region; that due to the said Government order there is 100% reservation and one of the condition to get the benefit of the said reservation is that the parents of the candidates should have been residing continuously in the Union Territory of Puducherry for atleast for five years and