MANOJ KUMAR Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE two writ petitions involve common questions of fact and law and, therefore, with consent of parties, they have been heard together and are being disposed of by this common order at the stage of admission itself.

(2.) BOTH the writ petitions have been filed by students. BOTH of them had taken the Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Examination conducted by the Bihar Combined Entrance Competitive Examination Board (hereinafter referred to as 'the Board') in 1998 for admission into various engineering colleges in the State of Bihar. The petitioners did not find place in the first list of successful candidates but subsequently they were found eligible for admission on seats that remained vacant in Maulana Azad College, of Engineering and Technology, Patna (hereinafter referred to as 'the College'). The grievance of the petitioners is that the Board thrice fixed and communicated to the petitioners the date of counselling for admission against vacant seats in the College, first by Annexure-2 dated 4.2.1999 and again by Annexure-4 dated 12.3.1999 and again by Annexure-5 dated 26.4.1999 but all the notices were subsequently cancelled and no interview/counselling took place for no fault of the petitioners and wholly on account of wrong actions of the Board or of the College in question. This forced the petitioners to move this Court through the present writ applications with a prayer to command the respondents to hold the necessary interview/counselling of eligible candidates including the petitioners forthwith and to admit them in the College in question on the basis of merit-cum-choice for the 1998-99 session for which the petitioners had taken the examination.

(3.) IN the aforesaid facts and circumstances, the stand of the College is that it is justified in refusing to take any further admission in the month of April 1999. The stand of the respondent-Board and Controller of Examination is that upon coming to laaow of the stand of the College in April, 1999 they have referred the matter to the Government of Bihar for guidance taut they have not received any reply and as noticed earlier the stand of the State of Bihar is that they have nothing to do in the matter as the competent authority in these matters is the Board and the Controller of Examination.