The court ruled that educational institutions may choose not to provide reservations, and courts cannot mandate such provisions, as policy decisions lie exclusively within the state's discretion.

JUDGMENT :

VIKAS SURI, J.

1. This order would dispose of two writ petitions filed by the petitioner, i.e. CWP-16520-2023 and CWP-14572-2024, wherein the main issue involved is of reservation for OBC category in admissions to Bachelor of Engineering course. The above petitions pertain to the session 2023-24 and 2024-25, respectively. With the consent of learned counsel for the parties, both the petitions were heard together and are being disposed of by common judgment. The documents are being referred to from CWP-16520-2023, unless specifically mentioned in reference to the context.

2. Briefly stated, petitioner-Vyom Yadav passed his 12^th class and appeared in Joint Entrance Examination (Main) 2023 (for short ‘JEE-2023’) and secured 194358 rank in the Common Rank list (CRL) and 63999 in the Other Backward Class non creamy layer (OBC-NCL) as per National Testing Agency (NTA) Score (Annexure P-2).

2.1 Being an aspirant for a seat in Bachelor of Engineering (BE) course, petitioner sought admission in University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Panjab University (for short, ‘UIET’) and Chandigarh College of Engineering and Technology, Sector 26, Chandigarh (for short, ‘CCET-26’). The petitioner seeks advantage of his Certificate of Other Backward Classes dated 03.05.2023 issued by the Sub Divisional Magistrate(S), U.T. Chandigarh (Annexure P-3).

2.2 Information Brochure 2023 (Annexure P-5), which governs the admission process and seat allocation for the session 2023-24, stipulates that Panjab University institutions have no reservation under OBC category and the candidates who have opted for OBC in JEE-2023 could change category to Backward Caste, provided they fulfil the requirement of BC as per Panjab University norms, else they were to be considered under General Category. All candidates were to be considered in General Category irrespective of their claim under reserved category, subject to fulfilment of minimum eligibility requirement and must not have availed relaxation in eligibility marks.

2.3 The petitioner filed CWP-14559-2023 praying for direction to the respondent college and University therein, to apply the Central Education Institutes (Reservation and Admission) Act, 2006 (for short, ‘CEI Act, 2006’) by providing reservation to other backward classes (OBCs) category students. It was pleaded in the said petition that petitioner had represented to the concerned respondents, which was not being decided. The aforesaid writ petition was disposed of by a coordinate Bench, vide order dated 17.07.2023 (Annexure P-13), after noticing the statement of learned counsel appearing for the respondents to the effect that the representation dated 04.06.2023 (Annexure P-8) as regards petitioner’s grievance raised therein, would be considered and decided by the authorities expeditiously in accordance with law. In compliance to order dated 17.07.2023, Joint Admission Committee (for short, ‘JAC-2023’) as well as Panjab University, Chandigarh dealt with said representation and vide speaking orders dated 25.07.2023, Annexure P-14 and P-15, respectively, rejected the same. JAC-2023 observed that the admissions to CCET-26 and other colleges of engineering of Panjab University were being made as per brochure published on 15.05.2023 with the commencement of admission process. The seat matrix of each participating institute approved by the respective authorities was mentioned in the brochure. The representation had been made after the start of admission process. The admissions in the participating instituti