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2025 Supreme(Online)(AP) 12209
HIGH COURT OF ANDHRA PRADESH
GANNAMANENI RAMAKRISHNA PRASAD, J
AV MALLIKARJUNA REDDY – Appellant
Versus
THE STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH – Respondent
Writ Petition No: 13645/2025
For the Appellants/Petitioners: CKR ASSOCIATES
For the Respondents: GP FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
The court emphasized adherence to natural justice, allowing petitioners a one-time opportunity to complete their Ph.D. despite late fee payment.
Headnote:(A) Constitution of India - Articles 14 and 21 - Writ of Mandamus - Petitioners challenged the university's refusal to allow them to complete their Ph.D. due to non-payment of fees - Principle of natural justice must be adhered to. (Para 2)
(B) Court allowed the petitioners to pay the extension fee with a one-time opportunity to complete their Ph.D., emphasizing the importance of notifying fees timely (Paras 6-8).
Facts of the case:
Petitioners sought to complete their Ph.D. course after being barred due to fees being unpaid, citing lack of proper notification from the university.
Findings of Court:
The court directed the university to accept the fee payment within ten days to enable completion of Ph.D. and allowed six months for thesis submission.
Issues: The key issue was the university's failure to notify admission fee deadlines adequately.
Ratio Decidendi: The court ruled that the university must allow the petitioners to rectify their fee status considering the principles of natural justice.
Result: Writ Petition stands allowed.
| Table of Content |
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| 1. petitioners sought relief due to denial of course completion. (Para 2 , 3) |
| 2. previous orders provide basis for petitioners’ claims. (Para 4) |
| 3. court directed respondents to allow fee payment to permit course completion. (Para 5 , 6 , 7) |
ORAL ORDER:
Heard Sri T.S.B.V. Rama Reddy, learned Counsel representing M/s.
CKR Associates, Smt. P. Lakshmi, learned Assistant Government Pleader for Higher Education and Smt. N. Vijaya Santhi, Learned Standing Counsel for Rayalaseema University.
2. The present Writ Petition is filed seeking following relief:
“…to issue a Writ, Order or Direction more particularly one in nature of Writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the 2ndand 3rd Respondents in not permitting the Petitioners to complete the Doctorate in Philosophy (Ph.D) Course purportedly on the grounds of non- payment of extension fee and non completion of course in time as wholly illegal, arbitrary, unjust, contrary to principles of Natural Justice besides being violative of Article 14 and 21 of Constitution of India and consequently direct the Respondents to permit the Petitioners to complete the Ph.D Course by condoning the delay for payment of the extension fee and to conduct DCM-I and further stages of the course by providing one time opportunity to complete his Course and pass…”
3. Learned Counsel for the Writ Petitioners has placed reliance on the Order passed by the learned Single Judge of this Court in W.P.No.13688 of 2024 dated 12.08.2024. On verification of the Order passed by the learned Single judge in W.P.No.13688 of 2024 dated 12.08.2024, it appears that the learned Single Judge has placed reliance on an earlier Order passed by this Court in W.P.No.28977 of 2023 dated 04.04.2024.
4. In this view of the matter, this Court is of the view that it would be useful to refer to the Order passed by the learned Single Judge in W.P.No.28977 of 2023 , since this Order, which has been referred to in the subsequent Writ Petitions, has been relied on for granting relief in the subsequent Writ Petitions.
5. Hence, this Court deems it appropriate to extract the relevant portion of the learned Single Judge’s Order in W.P.No.28977 of 2023 dated 04.04.2024:
“11. It is also evident from the material available on record that basing on the resolutions of the various committees and approvals of the Executive Committee, the University is continuing the research program and is confined to the resolutions of the EC and the EC has instructed the University to close the research program after completing the pending formalities for the research scholars whose research admissions were in live before 30.04.2024. The only ground on which petitioners’ case was rejected is that they have not paid the fees as they are not aware in view of the fact that the last date for payment of fees was uploaded only in the website.
12. In view of the fact that the respondent University has passed a resolution and thereafter issued various circulars for closure of the Ph.D. program before 30.04.2024, instead of going into merits of the case, this Court feels it appropriate to dispose of the present writ petition by directing the respondents to consider the case of the petitioners by receiving the payment of the research fee duly condoning the delay as a one time opportunity to the petitioners, within a period of ten (10) days from the date of receipt of a copy of this order and thereafter, the petitioners may be allowed to complete their Ph.D. program in accordance with law.”
6. Having regard to these facts, there shall be a direction to the Official Respondents to allow the Writ Petitioners to deposit the required fee within a period of ten (10) days in terms of the Order passed by this Court dated 04.04.2024 in W.P.No.28977 of 2023 . It is needless to state that the Official Respondents shall adhere to the directions passed by the learned Single Judge in W.P.No.28977 of 2023 dated 04.04.2024.
7. This Court has already directed the Respondent University
