The Hon’ble Sri Justice C.V.Nagarjuna Reddy Writ Petition No.29103 of 2014 Dated 17.12.2014 Between:
P.Venkata Haasya And The Government of A.P., rep. by its Prl.Secretary, Medical & Health Dept., Hyderabad and 3 others.
…Petitioner …Respondents Counsel for the petitioner: Mr.MSR.Chandra Murthy for Mr.G.Purushotham Reddy Counsel for respondent No.1: AGP for Medical Health & Family Welfare Counsel for respondent No.3: Mr.G.Ravi for Mr.A.Prabhakar Rao The Court made the following:
Order:
This Writ Petition is filed for a Mandamus to declare the action of respondent No.3, in allotting seat to respondent No.4 in the first year MBBS Degree course in the place earmarked for open category, as illegal and arbitrary.
I have heard Mr.M.S.R.Chandra Murthy, learned Counsel representing Mr.G.Purushotham Reddy, learned Counsel for the petitioner, and Mr.G.Ravi, learned Counsel, representing Mr.A.Prabhakar Rao, learned Standing Counsel for Dr.NTR University of Health Sciences.
In the EAMCET - 2014, the petitioner, who belongs to Open Category (OC), has secured a rank of 12434 and respondent No.4, who belongs to Backward Caste ‘A’ (BC-A), secured a rank of 21809. Both of them held NCC certificates. In the SV Medical College, Tirupathi, the total number of seats reserved for NCC candidates are six, out of which, three are earmarked for the candidates belonging to the reserved category. It is not in dispute that out of six seats, five seats were allotted to the candidates with superior merit in NCC quota. The dispute arose in respect of one seat, which was initially filled up with one Kotha Manoj Kumar, who belongs to BC- A category, but admitted under NCC (Open Category) in ACR Government Medical College, Nellore, in view of his superior merit in the first round of counseling. In the second phase of counseling, the said Manoj Kumar has opted for a seat reserved for BC-A category under NCC quota in SV Medical College, Tirupathi. Though respondent No.4 has secured lesser rank than that of the petitioner, respondent No.3 has allotted the said seat to respondent No.4 by treating the vacancy caused by the sliding of K.Manoj Kumar as reserved for BC- A category.
At the hearing, the learned Counsel for the petitioner has submitted that once the OC category seat becomes vacant, the same shall be filled up only with the candidate belonging to OC category and that, therefore, admitting respondent No.4 by treating the vacancy as reserved for BC- A category is not legal and proper. In support of his submission, the learned Counsel has placed reliance on the judgment of the Supreme Court in State of Bihar and others vs. M.Neethi Chandra and others[1].
Opposing the above submission, the learned Standing Counsel for respondent No.3 submitted that respondent No.4 was given admission strictly in accordance with the instructions issued by the State G o v e r n m e n t vide G.O.Ms.No.550 Higher Education (EC.2) Department, dated 30-07-2001.
The aforesaid GO laid down certain guidelines to be followed in respect of reservations for SC/ST/BCs in Engineering and other professional courses. Para 5 (ii) of the said GO reads as under:
“Next, reservation categories like
SC/ST/BC candidates will be counseled to fill up the seats earmarked for them in their respective categories. During this process, if a candidate belonging to Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe/Backward Classes who had taken admission under open competition, opts for a better branch of a better college of his choice for which he or she would be eligible as per the rules of reservation, the seat vacated by him or her in open competition shall be filled with a candidate from the same reservation category only, in order of merit.”(Emphasis added)
The above instruction makes it very clear that if a reserved category candidate has taken admission in a open competition seat and if he vacates that seat, by opting for a better branch or better quota of his choice, for which he would be eligible as per the rules of reservation, the seat vacated by him in open competition shall be filled up with a candidate from the same reservation category only in order of merit. As noted herein before, Kotha Manoj Kumar, who has taken seat under OC Category in ACR Government Medical College, Nellore, has opted for SV Medical College of Tirupathi by availing his reservation as belonging to BC- A. Therefore, as per the above-mentioned rule, the seat vacated by him shall be filled up with the candidate belonging to the same category to which Kotha Manoj Kumar belongs.
In the light of this unequivocal rule position, the plea of the petitioner cannot be accepted. The facts in State of Bihar (cited supra) are completely different and the said judgment has no application to the facts of the present case and consequently, the same does not help the petitioner.
For the above-mentioned reasons, the Writ Petition is without any merit and the same is, accordingly, dismissed.
As a sequel to dismissal of the Writ Petition, WPMP.No.36407 of 2014, filed by the petitioner for interim relief, is dismissed as infructuous.
(C.V.Nagarjuna Reddy, J)
Dt: 17th December, 2014
LUR
[1] (1996) 6 Supreme Court Cases 36