ANAND Vs. VISWESHWARAYA TECHNOLOGICAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners are the students of Bangalore College of Engineering and Technology (in short 'b. E. T. ') have filed these writ petitions seeking relief of writ of mandamus and other directions in various other forms. The pith and substance of the reliefs sought by each of the petitioners is for a mandamus and a similar direction against the Registrar, Viswesh-waraya Technological University, Special Officer, C. E. T. and the State government for providing them a seat in any of the approved colleges and in some of the petitions, the petitioners alternatively claim that the rejection of approval by the A. I. C. T. E. for the Engineering Degree course in Telecommunication and Instrumentation Technology as illegal and sought for a direction that the two courses have to be approved and some of the writ petitioners have sought for damages for the mental agony and the inconvenience caused to them by the action of the respondents and some of them have sought for the general reliefs apart from the specific relief of mandamus and a similar direction against the respondents. Insofar as the petitioners who are eligible to take immediate admission to the third semester, it is submitted that admissions be given to them immediately and others who are immediately ineligible, available admission seats be reserved for their admission to third semester after they become eligible by passing the required number of subjects.

(2.) THE petitioners have undergone the academic training in two semesters. Some of them are qualified to go to third semester and some of them are yet to be qualified to go to third semester as they have not passed the required number of subjects in the first and second semesters. At the time when the petitioners were given admission to B. E. T. there was a litigation pending in W. P. No. 27425 of 1999. The B. E. T. was earlier started at Malur in Kolar District and had to be closed on account of legal snags and was re-established at Chandapur in Bangalore Rural District. The A. I. C. T. E. had recognised only four courses in the college at Chandapur with permissible intake of 180 students. The college was demanding an approval of six courses with an intake of 45 students per course.

(3.) IN Writ Petition No. 27425 of 1999 this Court by order dated 24-2-2001 allowed the writ petition filed by the B. E. T. , directed the university and the A. I. C. T. E. to consider the affiliation and approval of new college established at Chandapur. A. I. C. T. E. rejected the affiliation in the year 2000-01 by its order dated 17th May, 2000. The B. E. T. challenged the order of rejection in W. P. No. 23080 of 2001 and obtained interim order against the C. E. T. and other respondents including the government for inclusion of the college in the seat matrix for the year 2000-01 based on the intake fixed for the previous year 1998-99 which pertains to the college that was functioning at Malur. This Court by order dated 4-7-2000 also further directed the A. I. C. T. E. to consider the viability of approval of the request for affiliation to start the courses in engineering as requested.