Hon’ble P.K.S. Baghel, J.—The petitioners are educational Institutions. In this batch of petitions there is common grievance of all the petitioners that they have admitted the students in Under Graduate and Post Graduate Courses without realising any fee under the Zero Fee Scheme but the State Government has failed to reimburse the fee to them and the University is demanding examination fee of the students from the Colleges/petitioners. It is not permitting the students to appear in examination without examination fee.

2. All the petitioners are self-financing Degree College affiliated to Veer Bahadur Singh Purvanchal University, Jaunpur. The writ petition No. 3078 of 2014 is treated as lead petition. There are four petitioners in this writ petition. They have preferred this writ petition for a direction upon the Principal Secretary, Higher Education and Principal Secretary, Social Welfare, Government of U.P. to pay the examination fee of Scheduled Castes category students directly to the University for the Session 2013-14. A further relief has been sought for a direction upon the respondents to accept examination forms of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes category students without insisting for the payment of examination fee from petitioner Institutions and to permit the students to appear in the examinations.

3. The essential facts are; the Central Government with a view to upliftment of the students of marginalized section of the society particularly scheduled castes and scheduled tribes students, formulated a scheme whereunder the fee is reimbursed to the undergraduate and postgraduate students. The Central Government provides funds to the State Governments which reimburse the fees to the students through Social Welfare Department.

4. Under the Scheme for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes students hundred percent fee is reimbursed by the Government to the Managements of the Institutions. The State Government issued several Government orders from time to time. The State Government later on extended the benefit of fee reimbursement scheme to the students of the OBC category and the General category students, who belong to a family whose annual income is less than Rs. 67000/- per annum.

5. The said scheme provides a detail procedure wherein the students are supposed to fill up scholarship forms online at the particular website and submit also hard copies to their Colleges. The Managements of the Colleges after receiving the said information forward the same to the Social Welfare Officer at District level. In each District a Three-Member Committee has been constituted by the State Government. The District Magistrate or his nominee is one of the members of the Committee. The concerned District Inspector of Schools, Secretary and the District Backward Classes Development Officer are the other members of the Committee. The details received from the College are scrutinized by the District Level Committee and after verifying the same it is forwarded to the State Level Committee. The Committee, on the basis of the said report of the District Level Committees, verifies the correct facts and authenticity, disburses the necessary fund to each District. Copies of the Government orders dated 11 October 2010 and 6.7.2011 are marked as annexure Nos. 1 & 2 to the writ petition.

6. After sometime State Government, on the basis of the various reports received from the Districts, found that the procedure provided under the previous Government orders were not satisfactory, therefore, on 26 September 2012 it framed Uttar Pradesh Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Post Matric Scholarship Rules, 2012 (for short, “the Rules, 2012). A copy of the said Rules is on the record as annexure-3 to the writ petition. The Rules 2012 provides a detail procedure for the reimbursement of the fee to the students. The Rules 2012 were again amended by another Government order dated 02 December 2013.

7. It is significant to mention that the State