RANJIT SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has approached this Court claiming that he belongs to backward class category and as such was entitled to relaxation of 5% marks in the eligibility conditions. According to the petitioner, he had secured 48% marks in Bachelors Degree Examination and on account of the relaxation of 5% marks was eligible to seek admission and appear for Joint Entrance Test for B.Ed. Course. The grievance was made that admit card had not been issued to the petitioner. Notice of motion was issued by this Court on July 14, 2006 taking into consideration the plea raised by the petitioner. He was allowed to be admitted provisionally in the Joint Entrance Test which was scheduled to be held on July 15, 2006. However, it was made clear that the aforesaid permission granted to the petitioner shall not vest any right in him and would be subject to the final decision of the case.

(2.) We may notice at the outset that the claim made by the petitioner is primarily based upon the eligibility conditions mentioned in the prospectus. Clause 1.7 of the conditions contained in the Prospectus reads as under:

(3.) The claim of the petitioner has been contested by the respondent-Panjab University (hereinafter referred to as 'the University'). It has been maintained by the respondent-University that it was authorised to conduct the Joint Entrance Test for selection of students for admission to the B.Ed Course for the session 2006-07 in the various colleges of Education affiliated to the Panjab University, Punjabi University and Guru Nanak Dev University situated in the State of Punjab, as per the notification dated April 13, 2006. According to the University, the aforesaid notification was also attached with the Prospectus issued for conducting the admission process. However, on account of a mistake committed by the University, in the eligibility conditions a relaxation of 5% marks was indicated to have been given to the candidates belonging to the SC/ST categories and backward class category, although the notification dated April 13, 2006 did not contain any such relaxation qua the backward class. According to the University when the aforesaid mistake came to the notice of the University, a committee was constituted by the Vice- Chancellor to review the eligibility conditions and a meeting of the aforesaid committee was held on June 14, 2006. The aforesaid Committee noticed that in the Prospectus, concession of 5% marks in the qualifying examination had been made available to the backward class candidates and it was decided that as this concession had not been given by Punjab Government in the notification this concession could not be made available to the backward class candidates and candidates who had applied for entrance test shall stand withdrawn. It was also decided that the aforesaid backward class candidates, who had obtained less than 50% marks in the aforesaid qualifying examination could seek refund of their prospectuscum- application fees. A copy of the minutes of the meeting held by the aforesaid committee on June 14, 2006 has been appended as Annexure R-3/1 with the written statement filed by the University. A communication dated June 17, 2006 was also issued by the Punjab University to the State Government, conveying the aforesaid decision of the committee. Said communication is also appended as Annexure R-3/2 with the written statement filed by the University. Additionally Punjab University also issued a corrigendum which appeared in the newspapers on June 20, 2006, conveying the decision taken by the committee to the public. The said corrigendum is also appended as Annexure R-3/3 with the written statement filed by the University.