Kapur, J. - (1.) THIS is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India by six persons praying for a writ in the nature of mandamus to be issued to the State of Punjab at Simla. to forth with admit the Petitioners to the First year class of the Punjab Engineering College, Roorkee, in place of the nominated candidates or in addition to the said nominated candidates. According to the petition the Punjab Engineering College at Roorkee was established by the Govt. of the East Punjab in October 1947 and admission to the college was by merit, i.e., the basis of the admission was the results of the various applicants in B.A., B.Sc., or intermediate Science Examinations of the Punjab University and that in the years 1948 and 1949 the selection was made on this basis alone. The State in its statement has pleaded that even in these two years some seats in the College were reserved for people belonging to the scheduled caste (Harijans) and for ex -servicemen. The Petitioners then alleged that in accordance with the test of merit as given above they should have been admitted, because in the year 1949 the last candidate taken had obtained 338 marks in his B.A. examination. In para. 4 of the petition it is alleged that the State Govt. had changed the rules of admission which were given in an advertisement published in the Tribune dated 29 -7 -1950, and that has been attached as annexure 'A' to the petition as well as to the written statement of the State; that the Petitioners did not seek admission into other Colleges as they believed that the admission would be solely on the basis of merit; that according to the information received by them the procedure followed for admission in 1950 was that the Principal prepared a list of candidates "according to merit'' and out of this list he was allowed to take first sixteen candidates in accordance with merit on the the number of marks and 15 others were nominated by the Minister of Public Works Department, Captain Ranjit Singh, on the basis of personal recommendations of the Ministers and others and that these nominations were not based on education merit but on irrelevant and ulterior considerations. It is admitted in the petition that a selection Board consisting of Chief Engineer (Building and Roads) Deputy Chief Engineer and Principal of the College was formed for selecting candidates by nomination and that they called 80 to 85 candidates for the interview at Ludhiana on the 1st of November but it is alleged that they gave their approval to the nomination made by the Govt. without exercising their own judgment. It is not disclosed on what basin this allegation is made or how the Petitioners came to know about this. But it is alleged that this was merely "an eye -wash as a result of protest raised by some members of the State Legislature". It is also alleged that the Petitioners were not called for interview by this Board and that the Petitioners would have been selected if the method of selection had been as it was in the years 1947 to 1949, i.e., in accordance with the principle of marks obtained in the University examinations. The Petitioners continue and allege that "they are entitled to be admitted to the College according to their respective merit in the University examination and rely upon Article 16 of the Constitution of India that as the Petitioners have been deprived of a valuable right of not being able to follow the career that they had chosen for themselves they are entitled to approach this Court for a writ of mandamus. In para. 15 the Petitioners allege that there has been discrimination against them by the State, its Ministers and its Officers on the ground that the candidates belong to notified agricultural tribes and the Petitioners 1, 3, 4 and 5 and several other candidates do not belong to those tribes and in para. 16 the Petitioners rely on Articles 15 and 16 and other laws in force in the country.
(2.) IN reply the State has pleaded that there has been no infringement of any of the Articles of the Constitution of India, that Harijans are a special responsibility under Article 46 of the Constitution, that the principle of marks obtained by a candidate at the University examination is not the only test and it was open to the Govt. to select candidates on the basis of "general intelligence, physical fitness and aptitude for out -door work." On the merits it is admitted that the Petitioners have not been selected and that Govt. had notified that factors other than mere results in the examinations would be taken into consideration as is clear from the advertisement in the Tribune referred to in the petition and attached again to the written statement. It is admitted that the Principal prepared a list and submitted the same to Govt. for final selection and that 83 persons who were selected by nomination as provided for in the advertisement were interviewed by the Board constituted by the Govt. who took into consideration the academic qualifications of the candidates, their intelligence, personality and physical fitness and submitted the names of such candidates to Govt. for final decision. It was denied that the Board did not exercise their independent judgment or were "an eye -wash". It was also denied that the Petitioners have any right for admission to the College merely on the basis of the marks obtained by them as that is not the only criterion for judging, the comparative merits of persons seeking to join the profession of engineering. It was denied also that nominations were made on any personal considerations. Finally, it was pleaded that the admission to the College is within the administrative discretion of the Govt. and that no writ or other order can issue against the State. In annexure 'B' is contained the information for candidates seeking admission to the University Engineering Decree Class for the year 1950 -51. This contains information as to the basis on which students would be admitted into the College. In para. 8 it is stated that there would be 40 vacancies out of which 13 are reserved for the Punjab and Delhi Provinces, 3 for nominees of Pepsu, one for Himachal Pradesh and 3 for Jammu and Kashmir State. In para. 4 it is stated that land students would be selected on the basis of the marks obtained by them in the University examination as laid down in para. 9 of this information sheet and 17 would be taken by nomination as follows: (a)6 seats reserved for ex -servicemen or their sons or daughters; (b)9 by nomination (c)2 reserved for Harijans.
(3.) IN para. 5 a limitation is imposed on the qualifications of persons to be nominated and it provides as follows: The nomination will be subject to the condition that the candidates selected possess the minimum qualifications required i.e. F.Sc., First Class or failing that 2nd class in order of merit.;