NITIN D SHANVI Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AS may as 14 students have filed the present petition, challenging the constitutionality of the Rules framed by the respondent No. 1- State of Maharashtra governing the admission to the Engineering Colleges, for the year 1993-94. The petitioners, inter alia, contend that the said Rules, which have been brought, for the first time, into force, are unconstitutional for various reasons. They also contend that these Rules make them suffer hardship because of the discriminatory treatment given to the students, more particularly of Nagpur University. There is a background, on which the facts regarding the Rules and the challenge thereto will have to be stated. Those facts are as follows:-

(2.) PRIOR to 1993-94, i. e. , the current year, the Rules, which were in existence, are annexed by the petitioners in Annexure-B to the petition. It is a common knowledge that the admission to the Engineering courses are governed by the Rules generally throughout the State of Maharashtra, and a person, who passes 12th Standard examination, having offered Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics subjects, becomes eligible for admission to these courses. Hither to, i. e. , ill 1992-93, the system which was in prevalence, was that the Body, which controlled the admissions, used to take stock of the students offering Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, in each University and, thus, used to calculate the numbers of students studying in the six Universities in the State of Maharashtra; they being Bombay University, Pune University, Shivaji University, Marathwada University, Amravati University and Nagpur University. This year, of course, Pune University has been divided into two Universities, they being Pune University and North-Maharashtra University. For the purposes of admissions, Pune and North-Maharashtra Universities are being treated as one and the same University.

(3.) WHAT was being done under the old rules framed by the State for the year 1992-93 can be seen from rule No. 4. 2, which runs as follows:-