- (1.) These writ petitions question the action of His Excellency the Governor as Chancellor of 6 Universities whereby these Universities have been restrained from running the distance education course and awarding degrees by attempting off campus education in various courses which are described in the brochure of the Universities which have either been brought on record in these writ petitions or have been produced before this Court. The directions issued by the Chancellor as a consequence upon the aforesaid restraint order including the return of fee already realised by the Universities and the Education Centres have also been challenged. "
(2.) There are 2 sets of petitioners before this Court, one in which the students have come up against the orders and the second set in which the collaborator/co-ordinator/facilitator of the study centres have challenged the impugned order passed by the Chancellor. Three of these writ ptitions .are in respect of the Universities governed by the provisions of U.P. State Universities Act, 1973 whereas the other 3 Universities are governed by the Uttar Pradesh Agriculture and Technology Universities Act, 1958. All these writ petitions raise a common question of law and, and such, all of them are being disposed of by this common judgment.
(3.) The impugned orders passed by the Chancellor directly affects the students who are the petitioners. The other writ petitions have been filed by the collaborators/co-ordinators/ facilitators, who claim that they have been authorised to run the study Centres under an agreement entered into between the petitioners and the respective Universities and, as such, they claim that the order of the Chancellor affects their rights as well.;