(1.) The present appeal is directed against the judgment dated 10.12.2012 passed in CWP No. 20359 of 2012 whereby, the writ petition had been dismissed. The short question which arises for consideration is whether the Exserviceman is entitled for admission in preference over the dependents of another Ex-serviceman and whether the priority is to be given firstly to the Ex-serviceman himself or whether he is to stand in line with the dependents of Ex-servicemen and compete with them on merit against the reserved seats.
(2.) The petitioner-appellant filed the writ petition seeking a writ in the nature of mandamus asking the respondent-university to implement the reservation policy for admission to the Bachelor of Education Degree course with respect to the quota for Ex-servicemen in letter and spirit and in accordance with the policy of the Government of Haryana and as specified in the information brochure issued by the respondent-university. Further prayer was made that he should be granted admission to the Bachelor of Education Degree course in respondent no. 3- University College of Education, Kurukshetra under the Ex-servicemen quota for which he was fully eligible but had not been granted admission due to the faulty application of reservation of the same category.
(3.) The petitioner-appellant, who had been enrolled in Indian Air Force as an Airman on 27.09.1991, rendered 20 years of service and was discharged from service with pension as being an Ex-serviceman on 30.09.2011. It was pleaded that at the time of joining the service, he was Matriculate and while in service, he passed 10+2, acquired Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) and later on Masters of Arts (M.A.) degree. Since he wished to study further, he had applied for online registration and counseling for B.Ed. (Regular) course for the academic year 2012- 13 conducted by the respondent-university. The petitioner-appellant had opted for respondent no. 3-University College of Education, Kurukshetra as the first choice from amongst the various colleges offering the said course. However, the petitioner-appellant was not granted admission and on enquiry, he came to know that dependents of the defence personnel were given preference over the Exserviceman like him. Accordingly, it was pleaded that he made a representation dated 10.09.2012 to the Director General, Higher Education, Haryana, Panchkula in which he brought to his notice that the university had made a combined merit list of defence personnel/dependents of Ex-servicemen which was against the policy. The preference of reservation should have been given to the Exserviceman first and thereafter the dependents of Ex-servicemen should have been considered if any vacant seat was left after accommodating the Ex-servicemen. On 13.09.2012, the Director General forwarded his request to the Registrar of the University for consideration as per the reservation policy of Ex-servicemen category as mentioned in the prospectus approved by the Government as per point (v). Another representation was made to the Registrar on the same issue on 20.09.2012 seeking preference being an Ex-serviceman first but admission was given to the dependents of the Ex-servicemen. However, the respondentuniversity had prepared a combined merit list which caused prejudice to the petitioner-appellant and he was not included in the list of successful candidates who had been granted admission to the B.Ed. regular course. Accordingly, the petitioner-appellant filed the writ petition placing reliance upon clause (v) of the prospectus which provided 3% horizontal reservation to Ex-servicemen/freedom fighters and their dependents by providing reservation within reservation of 1% of general category, 1% out of Scheduled Castes category and 1% from backward class category. Reliance was also placed upon the instructions regarding distribution and reservation of seats and general instructions issued by the Haryana State Counselling Society, Panchkula wherein, wards of Ex-servicemen who had died in action while in active service were to be given seats firstly and secondly to Ex-servicemen himself and thirdly to wards of Ex-servicemen and thereafter wards of Paramilitary Forces. Support was also drawn from the distribution of seats as per Clause 11 of Chapter 5 of the said instructions.