THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE T. VINOD KUMAR Writ Petition.No.21538 of 2024

ORDER

This Writ Petition is filed with the following prayer:

“…to issue a Writ, order or direction, more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus, declaring the action of the Respondents 2 and 3 in endorsing as ineligible in Annexure P16 depriving his candidature for admission into Engineering under graduate course in Sports quota as per G.O.Ms.No.2 Youth Advancement Tourism and Culture Sports Department dated 22.09.2020 as arbitrary and illegal, contrary to the Principles of Natural Justice and violates the Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India, set aside the same and consequently direct the Respondents 2 and 3 to consider his candidature under sports quota and grant admission to the Petitioner into Engineering course and pass such other order or orders as this Hon’ble Court may deem fit.”

2. Heard Sri Ashok Anand Kumar, learned Senior Counsel representing Sri N.Gangadhar, learned counsel for the petitioner, learned Government Pleader for Education appearing for respondent No.1 and learned Standing Counsel for Higher Education appearing for respondent Nos.2 and 3, learned Standing Counsel for JNTU appearing for respondent No.5 and learned Additional Advocate General appearing on behalf of respondent Nos.4, 6 and 7 and perused the record.

3. Briefly stated, the case of the petitioner is that he had sought admission into B-Tech Engineering Under Graduate Course in Computer Science under Sports Quota as per G.O.Ms.No.2 Youth Advancement Tourism Culture (Sports) Department dt.22.09.2020; and that the candidature for admission into the aforesaid course under Sports Quota has been rejected by categorizing as “not eligible”.

4. Petitioner contends that he had completed his Secondary School during the year 2021-22, and thereafter, intermediate education during the year 2023-24 and wrote the common entrance test titled as ‘Telangana State Engineering Agriculture and Pharmacy Common Entrance Test 2024 (TS-EAPCAT-2024) held on 09.05.2024 and secured a rank of 15884; that on getting qualified in the common entrance test, he had sought for admission into Engineering Course in Computer Science under Sports Quota, as he had participated in many Chess Championships and won Medals and Merit Certificates; and that having participated in various Chess Championships, the petitioner’s candidature for admission into Engineering Course in Computer Science under Sports Quota should have been assigned priority at Serial No.45 or 57, as per G.O.Ms.No.2, having taken part in Asian Youth Chess Championship held during the year 2019, wherein he was placed as Champion and also having participated in the World Youth Chess Championship, 2019, and having won the 3^rd place therein making him eligible to be considered under priority Serial Nos.6 and 8 of G.O.Ms.No.2, dt. 22.09.2020.

5. It is the further case of the petitioner that despite the petitioner being awarded the title of ‘International Master Chess Champion’ for the year 2019 by FIDE - Gens una sumus and on the petitioner achieving the aforesaid recognition, the 4^th respondent had also felicitated him and presented a cash award of Rs.1,00,000/-, he has been shown as ‘Not eligible’ in the provisional list released by the Respondent No.5.

6. Petitioner further contends that under G.O.Ms.No.2, guidelines for admission into professional courses, like engineering, agriculture etc., under Sports Quota have been issued; that as per Guideline No.5 of the said G.O., priorities shall be accorded to candidates basing on their best performance of last five years verifying the genuineness of certificates; that as per Guideline 5(e), the participation in open tournament/invitation tournament/unauthorized meets which are not mentioned in the G.O. will not be considered; that as per Clause 5(f) of the aforesaid G.O., any international achievement/participation may be considered when only such certificate was issued by the competent au