1. Heard Mr. Arijit Bhowmik, learned counsel appearing for the petitioner as well as Mr. B. C. Das, learned Advocate General assisted by Mr. D. C. Nath, learned Additional Government Advocate appearing for the respondents - State. Also heard Mr. A. Nandi, learned counsel appearing for the respondent No. 4, Mr. C. S. Sinha, learned counsel appearing for the respondent No. 5 and Mr. Somik Deb, learned counsel appearing for the respondent No. 6.

2. Both these writ petitions being W.P.(C) No. 1062 of 2017 [Sri Arghyadeep Das v. The State of Tripura and others] and W.P.(C) No. 1063 of 2017 [Smt. Priyanka Das v. The State of Tripura and others] are consolidated for disposal by a common judgment as the challenge in these petitions are structured on the common grounds and relating to admission in the MBBS course, 2017 in Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (in short the RIMS) by the second counselling held by the Common Counselling Committee, NEET - UG 2017 under the Directorate of Medical Education, Health and Family Welfare Department, Government of Tripura.

3. The petitioners namely Sri Arghyadeep Das and Smt. Priyanka Das do belong to Scheduled Castes (in short SC) community and they