ALLAHABAD UNIVERSITY Vs. SHRUTI CHATURVEDI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The controversy raised in these two cases relates to admission of students in Post-Graduate courses of Allahabad University (the University for short) for the Session 1997-98 Civil Misc. Writ Petition No. 6951 of 1998 has been filed by five students who graduated from Ewing Christian College, Allahabad (E.C.C. for short), which is an autonomous College affiliated to the University, while Civil Misc. Writ Petition No. 5936 of 1998 has been filed by the Management of E.C.C. against the University through its Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar of the University. The former case was disposed of by a learned single Judge of this Court by the judgment rendered on 23-3-1998 in which the writ petition was allowed. The operative portion of the judgment reads as follows :-

(2.) The relevant facts of the case, shorn of unnecessary details, may be stated thus : Ewing Christian College, Allahabad, which was previously an affiliated Degree College of Allahabad University, has been declared an autonomous College under Section 42 of the U. P. State Universities Act, 1973 since 1994 The said institutiontakes decisions regarding syllabus for the courses of studies, conducts examination and declares the results; but the successful candidates are conferred degree by the Allahabad University which, in other words, means that the students, who successfully complete graduation courses from the institution, are accepted as graduates of the University. As expected, many such students seek admission to Post-Graduate courses of the University. The University selects students for admission on the basis of their performance in the qualifying examination, that is, the three years degree course. While this arrangement was continuing, the Admission Committee of the University in the meeting held on 7/02/1998, passed a resolution to the effect that from the Session 1998-99 selection of students for admission to Post-Graduate courses will be made on the basis of entrance examination and for the current Session, 1997-98, the Admission Committee decided that students of E.C.C. will be considered for admission only to the extent of 10% of the total seats in the respective Post-Graduate courses. Subjected to such restriction the petitioners of Writ Petition No. 6951 of 1998 failed to secure admission solely on the ground that they did not qualify for the seats within the prescribed limit of 10%. Their case is that though the percentage of marks secured by them is higher than other students who have been selected for admission, they have been denied the privilege solely on the basis of the arbitrary and irrational decision of the Admission Committee to limit the number of seats available for graduates of E.C.C. to 10% of the seats. The petitioners contend that by such decision of the University merit has been made to suffer, which is not in the interest of the University or the student community.

(3.) The case of the University, on the other hand, is that the courses of studies and qualifying examination in which the petitioners participated were different from those of the University. Since the qualifying examinations of the two sections of students were different, therefore, the Admission Committee was justified in restricting the number of seats for graduates of E.C.C.