Hon’ble Sudhir Agarwal, J.—The petitioners, having been denied admission in B.Ed. course 2007-08 pursuant to combined entrance examination conducted by Chhatrapati Sahu Ji Maharaj University, Kanpur (hereinafter referred to as the “University”) for all State Universities, Degree Colleges affiliated to such Universities, have come to this Court by means of the present writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

2. The facts in brief giving rise to the present dispute are that in order to give admission in B.Ed. courses conducted by various State Universities and their constituent, affiliated and associated colleges, the respondent-University issued an advertisement and also published an Information Brochure containing various informations with respect to the said examination. Since this was a joint entrance examination, the candidates were required to give their options with respect to five institutions of their choice and in para 25 of the information brochure it was provided that in case it is not possible to give admission to a candidate in five institutions of his choice, on the basis of his merit position, the University shall be at liberty to give admission to such a candidate in any other institution. It is stated that total number of seats in all institutions for which the combined test was held are about 54,765. The last date for submission of application form was 16.5.2007 and the examination was scheduled to be held on 10.6.2007. The petitioners applied for the said examination and were awarded roll numbers as under :

Sl. No. Name of petitioner Roll Number

1. Pawan Kumar 5751060

2. Devesh Dubey 6011023

3. Yogesh Shukla 6081120

4. Harsh Mohan Sharma 6181182

5. Bramhanand Kashyap 5861039

4. The written examination which was scheduled to be held on 10.6.2007 was postponed and ultimately it was held on 22.7.2007. The result of the written examination was declared on 13.10.2007 and the petitioners secured rank in the merit as 3272, 3249, 3504, 4734 and 4834 respectively. The Registrar of the University by a written communication informed the petitioners to attend Lucknow University, Old Campus, Golden Jubilee Hostel, Lucknow on 27.12.2007 for counselling. One of such written communication dated 12.12.2007 sent to petitioner No. 1, Pawan Kumar is placed on record as Annexure-4 to the writ petition. It is mentioned therein that the candidate has to complete his counselling on the prescribed date itself and the letter of admission or rejection shall be handed over to him by the next day. The said letter also informed the petitioners about off campus online counselling schedule and further provides that if the candidate does not lock his option in the computer, his candidature for seeking allotment would not be considered and for this consequence the candidate himself shall be responsible. A similar notice was also published in the newspaper. A copy of the daily newspaper “Dainik Jagran” dated 18.12.2007 containing such information has been placed on record as Annexure-5 to the writ petition. The petitioners attended the counselling and as required give the institutions of their choice. It is said that there was no information about the number of colleges which were to be given in order of preference. Since selection was made for a very large number of institutions and their entire details were not made public, therefore, the petitioners give preference list of some of the colleges known to them. On 28.12.2007, the petitioners, however, were handed over rejection letters stating that they cannot be granted admission in the institutions of their choice given on 27.12.2007. The language of the rejection letter is similar in all cases of petitioners and reads as under :

”You could not be allotted any seat based on the choices opted by you on December 27, 2007 at Lucknow University, Old Campus, Golden Jubilee Hostel, Lucknow.”

5. The petitioners were surprised to see the rejection letter since as per para