- (1.) By way of these writ petitions, the petitioners have challenged the action of the State Government, the notification dated 14.08.2019, in particular, whereby the State Government has proposed to hold additional Joint Entrance Examination (JET) for private universities only and not including the private colleges.
(2.) Learned counsel for the petitioners argued that impugned action on the part of the respondent-State is ex-facie arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. He submitted that the State cannot discriminate between the private colleges vis-a-vis private universities. Pointing out that the petitioners and the private Universities participated in the same selection process, however after completion of the counseling, the respondent-State has given fresh chance to the private Universities, while not according such opportunity to the petitioners-private colleges. Mr. Rajat Arora, learned counsel for the respondent- State, argued that after completion of the counseling, as many as 1137 seats remained vacant, out of which 1064 seats of private Universities were vacant, for which the State proposed to conduct de novo process for providing admission in private Universities. According to him, only 72 seats of different private colleges remained unfilled and thus it was thought appropriate not to include seats of private colleges for the ensuing process.
(3.) It was argued that the State had no intention to favour private Universities, the notification dated 14.08.2019 was issued as those Universities represented that their seats are lying vacant, whereas none of the private colleges have ever requested to conduct fresh counselling. Mr. Godara, learned counsel for Coordinator, JET, 2019, argued that if fresh selection process is undertaken, it would take considerable time and the students, who are given admission, will not be able to complete their requisite attendance. ;