Vikram Banjare vs State Of Chhattisgarh

Petitioner, in the present Writ Petition, seems to be aggrieved of the allotment of the College for pursuing B.Sc. Ag. (Hons) graduation course having cleared the examination of PAT.

In the examination of PAT, the overall ranking of the Petitioner was 135 th and in the Scheduled Caste category to which he belongs his rank was 6th. That, in choice of preference of the Institutions where he wanted the admission, he had shown the College of Agriculture, Raipur to be his first preference and the College of Forestry, Sankra Patan to be the 23rd option. However, now when the College has been alloted, the Petitioner has been alloted the College of Forestry, Sankra Patan and not the College of Agriculture, Raipur.

Upon the correspondence made by the Petitioner, the Respondents No.2 to 4 had informed the Petitioner that he has been alloted the College of Forestry, Sankra Patan as per the choice of option given by the Petitioner himself and they have shown the choice of preference allegedly given by the Petitioner as is reflected from the document enclosed along with Annexure P-4.

Contention of the Petitioner is that the said list of preference provided along with Annexure P-4 is not the one which has been submitted by the Petitioner and the one which was in fact submitted by the Petitioner is the one which is enclosed along with Annexure P-2. Further contention of Petitioner is that the change of preference has been done by some external interference without the knowledge and notice of the Petitioner and that has resulted in the Petitioner being alloted the College which is not the top order of College as per his preference.

Learned Counsel for Respondents No.2 to 4 on the other hand submits that the entire system is software based and the allotment of Colleges also is done as per the order of preference provided in the application form submitted by the concerned Applicants themselves. That, in the instant case, if not the Petitioner, it would have been some other third person who must have interfered or tampered with the order of preference of the Colleges and for which the contesting Respondents No.2 to 4 are not in any manner responsible. The Respondents No.2 to 4 on their own do not have the power to interfere with the choice of preference nor does they have the accessibility by way of editing to the list of preference.

Given the said submission by learned Counsel for Respondents No.2 to 4, the fact which needs to be realized at this juncture is that the present is not an adversarial litigation. The document Annexure P-2 is one which cannot be changed in the website, which shows the order of preference of the College which the Petitioner has preferred. There appears to be a huge difference in the order of preference, as is reflected from the document enclosed along with Annexure P-4. The Petitioner under no circumstances would have changed the order of preference of the College, particularly taking note of the merit position of the Petitioner in the PAT examination. Under the normal circumstances on the basis of merit position itself, the Petitioner would have easily got the admission in the College of Agriculture, Raipur considering the seats available in the respective categories in the College of Agriculture, Raipur.

Be that as it may, considering the merit position of the Petitioner and also the fact that the Petitioner is not in any manner responsible in the changing of the choice of allotment of College as has been reflected from Annexure P-2 which was the choice option submitted by the Petitioner, the present Writ Petition at this juncture is disposed of directing the Respondents No.2 to 4 to immediately consider the representation, if any, made by the Petitioner in this regard. If not, the Petitioner is directed to approach the Respondents No.2 to 4 within three days by moving appropriate application for correction in the allotment of College in terms of the option submitted by the Petitioner as would be reflected from the list of preference enclosed along with Annexure P-2, the original application uploaded by the Petitioner which the Petitioner has obtained from the website itself.

Upon such a request being received, the Respondents No.2 to 4 would then immediately consider the allotment of College to the Petitioner subject to merit position and the availability of seats in the College to which he has given his preference, particularly considering the category to which he belongs and the seats available in the respective category.

Let appropriate decision in this regard be taken immediately, keeping in view the fact that the counselling is still going on.

Writ Petition accordingly stands disposed of.

Certified Copy today.