JUDGMENT

V. GOPALA GOWDA, C.J.

These two appeals have been filed by the Chairman, Central Counselling Board, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela questioning the correctness of the impugned common order 2012 (2) OLR 554 dated 1.8.2012 passed by the learned Single Judge of this Court in W.P.(C) Nos. 11048 and 12934 of 2012 quashing Clause 3.3.1 of the Information Brochure issued by the appellant on 15th June, 2012 and directing him to admit the respondent-students/wards as per their ranking taking into consideration the All India Quota and Home State Quota only, urging various facts and legal contentions.

2. The learned Single Judge has elaborately referred to the necessary facts and has adverted to and extracted relevant clauses from the reservation policy in her order impugned in this case. Therefore, necessary facts for the purpose of considering the legal contentions urged in these appeals are mentioned here-in-below with a view to find out whether the appeals are required to be allowed by setting aside the impugned order passed by the learned Single Judge.

3. The appellant is the statutory Central Counselling Board (in short 'CCB') for taking policy decision laying down the criteria for conducting entrance examination and also policy decision regarding reservation of seats in its seventeen Institutes spread over the country to impart professional and technical engineering education to the students of the country. Information Brochure was issued in the month of November, 2011 for conducting the entrance examination to fill up the seats in the 17 National Institutes of Technology (In short NIT) and the students took the entrance examination keeping in view the criteria laid down in the information bulletin. The final rank list was published on 9.6.2012. The impugned policy was published and uploaded in their website on 27.5.2012 and 28.5.2012 respectively enumerating its policy in Clause 3.3.1 which has been extracted in the impugned judgment stating the method of selection and filling up of the seats in the National Institutes in the country on the basis of All Indian Rank and the Home State quota rank. That was found fault with by the learned Single Judge at the instance of the respondent-students and parents who filed the writ petitions contending that the said policy has been introduced after publication of the information bulletin for conducting entrance examination and before publication of the result of the said entrance examination. Online registration, filling up choices and choice locking were done between 16.6.2012 to 25.6.2012. First round of seat allotment was done on 27.6.2012. After the Information Brochure of 2012 was published on 15.6.2012, second round of seat allotment was done on 5.7.2012. Reporting to Centres against the second round of selection was done in between 6.7.2012 to 10.7.2012. Third round of seat allotment was done on 12.7.2012 and reporting to reporting centres against the third round selection for fresh allotment and surrender of the allotted seats was fixed in between 13.7.2012 to 16.7.2012. All reported candidates proceeded to allotted institutes for admission between 17.7.2012 to 22.7.2012. Online modification of choices (for un-allotted candidates and those who surrendered) was fixed between 17.7.2012 to 22.7.2012. All eligible candidates who did not register till date got fresh chance to register fill up choices and choice locking in between 17.7.2012 to 22.7.2012 and classes began for all participating institutions on 23.7.2012. Fourth round of seat allotment was fixed to 25.7.2012 and allotted candidates were to-proceed for admission between 25.7.2012 and 30.7.2012. Internal sliding for every institute was done on 1.8.2012 and vacancy position was published on CCB website on 2.8.2012. Fresh registration for spot round - all eligible candidates who did not register till date- got fresh chance to register for spot round between 3.8.2012 to 6.8.2012. Spot round allotment was done on