EDUCATION NEW DELHI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE three appeals by the Union of India, through Secretary, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Secondary & Higher Education, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi; the Coordinator, All India Engineering/Pharmacy/Architects Entrance Examination (AIEEE), Central Board of Secondary Education, New Delhi; and All India Council for Technical Education, New Delhi, are directed against the judgment & order of the learned Single Judge of this Court, dated April 02, 2004, rendered in SB Civil Writ Petition No. 2379/2003, whereby the Policy Notification dated October 18, 2001 of the Government of India, Department of Secondary Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development relating to framework for admission to engineering, architecture and pharmacy courses at under-graduate level in the country; the letter o the University Grants Commission dated December 06, 2001 informing the various institutions that the Government of India had resolved to conduct an All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) for admission to engineering, architecture & pharmacy courses at under-graduate level in the institutions, including the deemed universities as well as central institutions; and University Grants Commission (Admission To Specified Professional Programmes) Interim Regulations, 2003, dated December 17, 2003, framed by the University Grants Commission for admissions on all- India basis to the under-graduate programmes in engineering, architecture & planning and pharmacy in all institutions in the country, including the deemed universities, except admissions of Indian Institute of Technologies, Indian School of Mines (Dhanbad) and Institute of Technology (Banares Hindu University), have been found to be inapplicable to Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani (for short "BITS, Pilani"), the first respondent herein (the sole petitioner in the writ petition).

(2.) ON May 13, 1964, the first respondent was registered under the Rajasthan Societies Registration Act, 1958. Thereafter on June 27, 1964, within a period of less than a months, the Central Government by a publication in the Official Gazette declared the first respondent as a deemed university under Section 3 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 (for short "UGC Act").

(3.) UNDER the Guidelines of 2000, issued by the UGC for Evidencing Proposals For Declaring An Institution As Deemed To Be University UNDER Section 3 of the UGC Act, admissions to the identical causes in all the Deemed to be Universities are required to be made under para 13 on an all-India basis through a common entrance test conducted either by the UGC or by an Institution/Agency identified & approved by the UGC. Para-13 of the Guidelines read as under:- "Admissions shall be made on an All-India basis to the identical courses in all the deemed to be universities through a common entrance test conducted either by the University Grants Commission or by pan Institution/Agency identified and approved by the UGC. This shall apply also to those institutions which have already been given the deemed to be university status."