M.M.PUNCHHI, J. - (1.) In this writ petition preferred by 67 petitioners, challenge has been made to the newly introduced phenomenon of 'Normalisation' as the basis of selection for admission to 4 year Undergraduate Engineering Degree Courses at all the Regional Engineering Colleges in the State of Haryana and the Chhotu Ram State College of Engineering, Murthal (Haryana).
(2.) Most of the petitioners herein are minors and have approached this Court through their parents or guardians. The petitioners are residents of the State of Haryana and are students in various schools in the State of Haryana. They had appeared in the examination of the 12th class of the 10 + 2 system in the All India Senior School Certificate Examination conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education, Delhi (for short, referred to as 'the Central Board'), since their schools were affiliated to that Board. Another system which is akin to the Central Board system is afloat in the State of Haryana through other schools. Students thereof appear in the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination conducted by the Haryana School Education Board (for short, referred to as 'the Haryana Board'), as their schools are affiliated to that Board. Both the Central Board and the Haryana Board have adopted the same syllabi and the same pattern of examination. Students clearing these two examinations from the schools situated within the State of Haryana are eligible to apply for the course known as B.Tech. These examinations are considered equivalent for the purposes of admission to the Regional Engineering College, Kurukshetra, respondent No.3, affiliated to the Kurukshetra University, respondent No.1, and Chhotu Ram State College of Engineering, Murthal, respondent No. 4 affiliated to the Maharshi Dayanand University, respondent No. 2.
(3.) According to the petitioners, there are a total number of 310 seats for the B.Tech. Courses in the Regional Engineering College, Kurukshetra, out of which 155 (one-half) are kept for the students of Haryana and the other 155 are thrown open to the students from the entire country. Similarly, in Chhotu Ram State College of Engineering, Murthal, there are 150 seats kept for the students of Haryana. In addition to these 305 seats, 58 other seats are allocated to the students of Haryana in the other Regional Engineering Colleges in the other parts of the country. In this manner there are 363 seats for the students of Haryana. Uptill the year 1989 these seats were filled on the basis of merit determined from the qualifying marks obtained by the candidates in the Central Board and Haryana Board examinations on the basis of equivalency. With effect from the current academic session 1989-90 the two colleges, afore-referred to, made a decision to follow a system of normalisation of marks obtained by the candidates of the two Boards. The petitioners assert that the Board of Governors of the M.D. University, Rohtak, in their meeting held on November 4, 1988, decided to follow the system of normalisation of marks. But this fact appeared in the press in April, 1989 only, both in the Hindi as also English Sections though it was somewhat discrepant. The petitioners further assert that the Government of India, on the other hand, vide advertisement Annexure- P-3 dated March 15, 1989, had given out that the admission procedure as before would continue for the Session 1989-90 in the Regional Engineering Colleges. In May, 1989 came out the Admission Brochure for joint admission in both the Colleges in which by means of Cl.7 the basis of selection was laid, adopting the concept known as 'Normalisation'. It would be worthwhile to reproduce at this stage Clause 7 : "(7) Admission to all the Regional Engineering Colleges, listed in para 1 above, will be made on the basis of merit of normalized marks as per the procedure given below: 1. The marks obtained by the top (X) students, as detailed in para 2 below, in the subject of say Physics, appearing in the 10 + 2 Examination of the All India Senior School Certificate Examination of CBSE, New Delhi and Senior Secondary Certificate Examination of Board of School Education, Haryana, Bhiwani will be obtained and the average worked out separately for each of the two examinations. Let these be P1 for All India Senior School Certificate Examination of CBSE, New Delhi and P2 for Senior Secondary Certificate Examination of Board of School Education, Haryana, Bhiwani. Similarly the averages will be worked out in the subjects of Chemistry and Mathematics. Let these be C1, C2 in Chemistry M1, M2 in Mathematics for the two Boards respectively. The addition of P1, C1 and M1 divided by 3 will be the overall average of the marks in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics of All India Senior School Certificate Examination of CBSE, New Delhi. Similarly by adding P2, C2 and M2 and dividing it by 3 overall average of the Marks in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics of the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination of the Board of School Education, Haryana, Bhiwani will be obtained. These overall averages will represent the reference marks of the respective Boards for the purposes of normalization. Let these be A and B such that A is higher of the two. 2. The number of candidates (X) whose marks will be used for the purposes of normalization as above will be restricted to two per thousand, subject to a minimum of 20 and maximum of 100, appearing in the Science Stream of these Boards. 3. Then the actual marks in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics of an applicant for admission will be normalized as under:- If the actual PCM marks of a candidate from the Board with lower reference average are 'M' then his normalized marks will be with reference to candidates qualifying from the Board with higher reference average. 4. The normalization in respect of the candidates who have qualified :- (a)from a Board/Examining Body other than All India Senior School Certificate Examination of CBSE, and Haryana Board; (b) in a year earlier to 1989 from any Board/Examining Body including All India Senior School Certificate Examination, CBSE and Senior Secondary Certificate Examination of Board of School Education, Haryana, shall be done with reference to the higher of the two reference marks i.e. 'A' in the above illustration. If two candidates secure the same percentage of aggregate marks, the following criteria will be followed :- (i) The candidate with a higher qualification will be admitted. (ii) If the admission cannot be made under (i) above the candidate who is either a child or dependent brother/sister of Defence personnel or ward/child or Civil GT Coys ASC, who was a civilian Class III or Class IV Government servant and served in the field areas under the same conditions as military personnel and who has been killed or permanently disabled during the hostilities with Pakistan in 1965 or during the war in 1971, will be admitted. While applying, such candidates must submit a certificate from the Secretary, District Soldier's, Sailor's and Airmen's Board of the area concerned in support of their claim. (iii) If the criteria at (i) and (ii) above are not applicable, the candidate older in age will be admitted. (iv) If the criteria at (iii) also is not applicable, the candidates with higher percentage of marks in the subject of English will be admitted. Only those examinations which are conducted by a recognised Board/University will be considered.";