S.S.SANDHAWALIA, J.

1. The larger question that looms in this set of three Civil Writ Petitions is - whether a writ of certiorari lies against a privately owned and privately managed Medical College and Hospital? Inevitably, at issue is the validity of the somewhat wide ranging observations in this context by the Division Bench in Karan Singh V/s. Kurukshetra University, ILR (1976) 2 Punj and Har 859. Equally significant is the question - whether private institutions imparting higher medical education are instrumentalities or agencies of the State which had also come to the fore in the hearing of this reference to the Full Bench.

2. The terra firma of the factual matrix giving rise to the aforesaid issues (which are otherwise pristinely legal) may be taken from the averments in C.W.P. No. 3480 of 1981 (Gurpreet Singh V/s. Punjab University etc.) The Managing Society of the Daya Nand Medical College and Hospital - respondent No. 2, is admittedly a private institution registered under the Societies Registration Act. It is not in dispute that it is a charitable religious society privately managing the Daya Nand Medical College and Hospital, which is claimed to be a minority in