( 1 ) THESE Writ Appeals are directed against the common order of the learned single Judge dated 16-7-2001 in W. P. No. 24204 of 2000 and batch whereby and whereunder the writ petitions filed by some of the students who had appeared for EAMCET-2000 (medical) seeking the following reliefs. (i) declare the action of the respondents in granting admission in favour of the candidates who have secured lesser rank than the writ petitioners into the 1st year MBBS course under the unreserved segment of seats as bad in law and consequently direct the respondents to grant admission to the writ petitioner into the 1st year MBBS course: (ii) declare the action of the respondents herein in admitting 37 reserved category candidates under payment category seats in private medical colleges and subsequently shifting them to Govt. Medical Colleges and to free seats in Private medical colleges by considering their candidature under reserved quota and consequently filling up the 37 resultant vacancies under payment category with reserved category candidates as arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India; and (iii) direct the respondents to fill up 37 resultant vacancies in payment category in open competition with the candidates who have secured higher ranks from among the open category and strictly in accordance with the merit, were dismissed.

( 2 ) THE present appeals arose out of W. P. Nos. 1111 of 2001, 25974 of 2000, 889 of 2001, 1109 of 2001, 26672 of 2000 and 4138 of 2001 respectively.

( 3 ) THOUGH the facts involved in these appeals were simple, the controversy involved, however, is of complex in nature. We may briefly note the facts as under : the appellants-petitioners herein had appeared for the Engineering Agricultural and Medical Common Entrance Test-2000 (EAMCET-2000) aspiring for admission into MBBS course for the academic year 2000-2001 and secured the ranks as detailed below : W. A. No.

Name of the rank

1222

Bathina Rajya Shilpa 1105

1226

Jilla Swapna 1112

D. Madhavi Latha 1143

1228

Abhinga Chowdary 1033

1238

Silpa 1071

1249

V. Deepthi 1118

B. Sowjanya 1214

K. Uma 1235

M. Sivarama Krishna 1266

N. Rajasekhar 1289

1297

K. Srihari 0952

the first phase of counselling for admission into the I year course conducted by the NTR University of Health Sciences, Vijayawada commenced on 8-12-2000. Approximately 1004 seats were meant for open category in the entire State. The last candidate who was given admission into the course under the said category secured rank of 1087th. The grievance of the appellants is that the candidates belonging to reserved categories who have secured higher ranks were initially allotted against open category against payment seats in private medical colleges against their wish, but, subsequently they were permitted to slide down to colleges of their choice under reserved quota and were even permitted to convert their seats to free seats. In that process, 37 candidates belonging to reserved category who were initially admitted against payments seats in private medical colleges were shifted to Government Colleges or to free seats in private medical colleges under the reserved quota. However, the resultant vacancies in the open category caused due to the vacation of the seats by the reserved category candidates were again allotted to reserved category B. C. candidates instead of open competition candidates.

( 4 ) ACCORDING to the appellants, the payment seats are a separate block and as such a reserved category candidate who secured higher rank cannot be forced to take payment seat against his wish and later be permitted to slide down to free seat in Government or private medical colleges. Such practice is contrary to sub-rules (5), (6), (10) of Rule 7 of the Andhra Pradesh Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission into Under-graduate Professional Courses through Common Entrance Test) Rules, 1993 (EAMSET Rules for short ). It was stated that once the reserved