B. P. Jeevan Reddy, J. - (1.) Larson and Toubro Limited, a public limited company, is a leading engineering concern in this country. It has got a large work force required for its various projects. In the year 1983, it set up Larson and Toubro Institute of Technology. For establishing and running the institute, a trust called "Larson and Toubro Staff and Welfare Trust" was constituted. Because of certain legal complications, it is stated, the institute is being run directly by the company, dispensing with the trust. The institute imparts instruction in four-year diploma course - sixty seats in diploma in mechanical engineering and sixty seats in diploma in electrical engineering. According to the copy of the prospectus filed in this writ petition, the admission is open only to children of the employees of Larson and Toubro group of companies. It is further required that the employee should have put in a minimum period of five years of service as confirmed employee on July 1st of the year of admission to enable his child to claim the eligibility. The admission is made purely on the basis of merit determined on the basis of marks obtained in the Secondary School Certificate Examination of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary Education or an equivalent examination. The minimum marks are fifty per cent in the case of general candidates and forty five per cent in the backward class students. Thirty four percent of the seats are stated to be reserved in favour of backward classes. It is further stated before us by Sri K.K.Venugopal, learned counsel for the petitioner that no fee whatsoever is charged or collected from the students or from their parents for admission and/or instruction in the said institute. It is stated that as a matter of fact, Government of Maharashtra had granted permission for starting this institute in the year 1983 subject to the specific conditions that (1) no fee shall be charged from any student of the said institution; (2) the parents of the students must be Indian nationals; (3) the father / mother must be in service of the company for at least five years; (4) that government rules regarding reservation of thirty four per cent of seats for backward classes are followed and (5) that only where no candidates are available in the backward class category, that those seats will be filled up by open category candidates. It is stated that these conditions are being implicitly and faithfully followed by the institute.
(2.) On February 4, 1993, this Court delivered judgment in Unnikrishnan, J.P. v. State of Andhra Pradesh (1993) 1 SCC 645 , iter alia framing a scheme governing admission to professional colleges, which expression includes colleges imparting technical education. The idea behind the scheme was to put an end to the financial and other irregularities which had become rampant in these institutions, converting most of these institutions into teaching shops. The idea was to regulate admission to these colleges. Fifty per cent of seats are to be filled purely on the basis of merit (who shall pay only a nominal fee) and other fifty per cent being treated as 'payment seats', the admission to which seats also was to be on the basis of merit. On review petitions being filed by several persons, they were entertained only to the limited extent or providing a certain percentage of seats for non-resident Indians. It was directed that five per cent of the seats shall be reserved for non-resident Indian students. It appears that the petitioner was one of the review petitioners therein though it was not one of the writ petitioners in the batch of writ petition disposed of on February 4, 1993.
(3.) In pursuance of the judgment in Unnikrishnan, (supra), the All-India Council for Technical Education framed two sets of regulations under All-India Council of Technical Education Act, 1987, viz., A.I.C.T.E. (Norms and Guidelines for Fees and Guidelines for Admissions in Professional Colleges) Regulations, 1994 dated May 20, 1994 and A.I.C.T.E (Grant of Approval for starting new Technical Insitutions, Introduction of Courses or Programmes and Approval of intake capacity of seats for the Courses or Programmes) Regulations, 1994 dated October 31, 1994. These regulations have been framed consistent with and in furtherance of the scheme and directions contained in the judgment aforesaid.;