The court upheld the cancellation of admission based on the petitioner's failure to meet the eligibility criteria, affirming that procedural fairness was maintained despite the lack of a formal order from the Principal.

JUDGMENT :

1. Heard Shri Amar Sukh Rai, learned counsel for the appellant, Shri Diptiman Singh appearing for respondent No.1 and Shri H.R. Mishra who appears for respondent no. 2 and 3.

2. The instant special Appeal is directed against the order dated 03.01.2024 passed by the learned Single Judge in Writ C No. 42952 of 2023 whereby the writ petition was dismissed.

3. The facts of the case briefly stated are that the petitioner-appellant applied for admission in MA political science in Shyama Prasad Mukharjee State Degree College in non-subject category on 30.09.2023.

4. The petitioner was granted provisional admission and was allotted a roll number. He also appeared for the viva-voce held prior to the written examinations stated to commence from 11.11.2023. However, on 05.12.2023, it was communicated to the petitioner that his admission stood cancelled. The letter dated 05.12.2023, addressed to the petitioner was by the Convenor, Political Science Department of the Shyama Prasad Mukharjee Degree College.

5. The contention of Amar Sukh Rai, learned counsel for the petitioner is that the actual order cancelling his admission has not been provided to him and that on the communication of such an order made to the petitioner. In any case the order cancelling the admission of the petitioner has been passed without any notice/information and without affording any opportunity to show cause. The petitioner has, therefore, been condemned without an opportunity of hearing. There is no allegation of fraud against the petitioner.

6. The reason given in the communication is that the petitioner was not eligible for admission as per the Allahabad University Rules pertaining to Admission 2022 and Clause 1.4.1(d) because the merit of the petitioner as per TGAT was only 26.25 which is lower than the cut-off which was 70. The petitioner would be eligible for admission only if he had more than 70 marks.

7. The communication dated 05.12.2023 also stated that admission fees deposited could be collected by him and as also the original certificates furnished by him.

8. No such cut-off, the basis for cancelling the admission of the petitioner, finds a mention in the online form filled by the petitioner.

9. Moreover, there exists no order of the Principal, the competent authority, who alone could have cancelled the admission of the petitioner. Besides, the report of the five member Committee constituted by the Principal to examine the admission in Political Science Department which has been filed on record states that there was negligence and ignorance on the part of the Admission Committee of Political Science. The petitioner has, therefore, been penalized for the fault of others.

9. Shri Diptiman Singh appearing for the first respondent, the Registrar University of Allahabad, has produced before this Court the screenshots of the online application form to show that once an application form is being filled the brochure is available online as is clear from the screen shots. The relevant brochure, in the case of the petitioner was with regard to PGAT and in the screenshot, the same is shown PGAT(PDFs/PGAT%202023.pdf). A print out of this Pdf has been produced for the perusal of the Court. Various clauses of the Brochure which are enumerated below, have been specifically referred to by Shri Diptiman Singh:-

(i). On page 3 of the Brochure, it is provided that admission to MA, Political Science, was permitted for Non-Subject Candidates.

(ii). On page 6 of the brochure is the information with regard to Non-Subject Candidates which apart from other things, which provides:-

“The merit of such Non-Subject Candidate will be computed on the basis of average of their scores in the respective two PGAT-2023 tests for which he/she is a Subject Candidate.”

(iii). On page 17 of the brochure is clause 1.2.2 which reads as follows:-

“The candidature of a candidate (and the admission granted on that basis) shall stand cancelled at any stage in case the candidate is found to be inelligib