In Sri Venkateshwara Dental College And Hospital vs The State of Karnataka and Ors a writ petition was filed before the Karnataka High Court under article 226 and 227 of the constitution of India praying to issue a writ of mandamus directing Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA), to open the website/portal, to facilitate petitioners (students) to get themselves registered in the website/portal. It was observed that petitioner No.1 (Institution) wanted to admit petitioners 2 and 3 (students) for the BDS course for the academic year 2021-22 and further directed respondent No.4 (the Dental Council of India), to approve the admissions of petitioners.
The students who get qualified in the NEET, must register themselves with the Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA) between 2nd May to 3rd May for Mop-up round 2 counselling for BDS course 2021. Unfortunately, the website /portal of KEA which facilitates the registration was not at all open due to the reasons best known to them and therefore, petitioners(students) could not register themselves for the same. In view of the non-availability of the website/portal, the petitioners (institutions and students) were before the Court to seek relief.
Karnataka Examination Authority has contended that, the mischievous writ petition is at the behest of petitioner (college) to circumvent admission procedure which was concluded in May 2022 itself. The college has no locus standi to seek prayer as the registration process of the students has nothing to do with the individual college.
It is further contended that Miss.O.Shifina (petitioner No.3) also did not avail the opportunity of getting admitted to the college within the last date prescribed for admission and thus cannot be admitted at this juncture.
The list of registered students who did not secure any seats in the counselling process was forwarded to the colleges on 09.04.2022. The last date prescribed for admission to the colleges was 09.04.2022 which was extended till 15.05.2022. The petitioner (students) did not register themselves with the KEA at any point of time nor participated in the admission process. As per the procedure laid down, the colleges could give admission to only those students whose names were found in the list forwarded by the Karnataka Examination Authority. As the names of the petitioner (except afore mentioned Shifina) were not included in the list forwarded to the colleges, they are not entitled to be admitted to the course.
As an afterthought, at the behest of petitioners – college, the petitioner – students joined hands to get illegal admission by filing the present writ petition. It is a well settled principle of law laid down by the Hon’ble Supreme Court that no admission could be made to professional courses after the last date fixed for admission. In the present case, the petitioners have approached this Court on 27.06.2022, long after the last date prescribed for admission, that too, to reopen the registration process which cannot be countenanced.
It was concluded that the colleges have no right to ask for registration or to open the website and it is only the students who are qualified in the NEET can ask for registration. The writ petitions are filed by the petitioner – college along with students, in the form of Public Interest Litigation in education matter and this Filing litigation by the college on behalf of the students is impermissible and therefore, sought to dismiss the writ petition with costs. It is well settled that any person who approaches the Court for a writ of mandamus should first convince the Court as to what is the statutorily enforceable right available to them.
Source: Bar and Bench
