- (1.) Is the action of the respondents-the Kurukshetra University and the Shri Krishna Govt. Ayurvedic College, Kurukshetra, in accepting the application forms of the candidates for admission to Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery Course after the last date viz, August 26,1994, illegal This is the short question that arises in these three writ petitions. Learned counsel for the parties have referred to the facts as averred in C.W.P. No. 12241 of 1994. These may be briefly noticed.
(2.) The respondent-College admits 50 students every year to a five year course leading to the Degree of B.A.M.S. (Ayurvedacharya). The College admits the students on the basis of the entrance test conducted by the respondent-University. For this purpose, the University issued a Handbook of Information. The conditions of eligibility were prescribed. For admission to the entrance test, the candidates had to submit their application forms upto 4 PM on July 18, 1994. The test was to be held on August 14, 1994. Clauses 10 and 11 of the Instructions for the candidates provided as under :- "10. The University shall publish the merit list of the candidates who approached in the Entrance Test. 11. Candidates who have appeared in the Entrance Test may apply on the prescribed form obtainable from the Principal, Shri Krishana Govt. Ayurvedic College, Kurukshetra, as per advertisement, to be got published by the College separately." It was also provided that the admission to the course will be made "strictly on the basis of merit as obtained in the Entrance Test......"
(3.) In accordance with the stipulation in Clause 11 as reproduced above, the College issued an advertisement which appeared in the daily Tribune of August 8, 1994. It invited applications for admission to the Course from the candidates who had appeared in the Entrance Test. It was further provided that the last date of receipt of applications along with attested copies of the certificates, is August 26, 1994, upto 5 PM in the office of the Principal. The candidates were to be interviewed on August 31, 1994. Besides the advertisement, the College also issued a prospectus. The stipulations therein were similar to those in the advertisement. It was further provided as under :- "3. Admission will be made on the basis of merit of B.A.M.S. Entrance Test to be conducted by the Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra for the Session 1994-95. XX XX XX 5. The rules given herein are only provisional. They may be changed or modified by the University without prior notice. Candidates cannot claim on the basis of information given in the prospectus. 6. A candidate can be admitted to B.A.M.S. Course upto 30 days after the last date of admission, with the prior permission of the Vice- Chancellor." The petitioners aver that they appeared in the entrance test and also submitted duly completed forms to the College by the prescribed date. A list indicating the inter se merit of the candidates who had submitted their application forms on or before August 26, 1994 was displayed on the notice board by the College. The names of the petitioners appeared in this list. However, subsequently, the respondent-authorities "in order to adjust their own persons or under some political pressure started entertaining the forms of the candidates in violation of the terms and conditions of the prospectus and the advertisement, who had not applied within the stipulated period and were not in the list displayed by the college-respondent....." On September 1,1994 a selection list was displayed by the College in which the names of the petitioners did not figure and instead the names of those candidates who had not applied by the prescribed date and whose names had not even appeared in the merit list displayed by the College were included. These persons have been impleaded as respondents Nos. 4 to 18 in the writ petition. The petitioners allege that this action of the respondent- authorities is wholly illegal.;