K.SREEDHARAN, C.J.

1. This writ petition has come up before this Bench on a reference made by a Division Bench. The question referred for decision is as to whether an application received by the University after the expiry of the time fixed for filing the same as provided in the prospectus, is to be taken into consideration, if the student had posted the same sufficiently early and delay was solely caused by the postal authorities. In Saurabh Aggarwal V/s. Kurukshetra University, 1995 (1) Serv LR 80 : (AIR 1995 Punj and Har 23), a Bench of this Court took the view that mere fact that an application is received after last date fixed for the purpose when it had been despatched well in time, and the candidate was not to be blamed, application should be considered. The correctness of this view has been doubted and the issue has been referred to the Full Bench.

2. Short facts necessary for understanding the issue raised in this writ petition are as follows :-

Punjab Government constituted Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar as the Authority competent to conduct the Common Entrance Test (CET) 1997, as per Notification No. 35/1/97-IET-II/541 dated 30-1-1997. On the basis of the