THE HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE UJJAL BHUYAN
AND
THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V.BHASKAR REDDY
WRIT APPEAL Nos.653, 668, 669 and 671 of 2022
COMMON JUDGMENT: (Per the Hon'ble the Chief Justice Ujjal Bhuyan)
This judgment will dispose of W.A.Nos.653, 668, 669
and 671 of 2022.
2. Heard Mr. Peeta Raman, learned counsel for the
appellants and Mr. B.Thimothi, learned counsel for the
respondents.
3. In all the writ appeals, appellants have assailed correctness of the view taken by the learned Single Judge in dismissing W.P.Nos.33879, 34217, 34245 and 34563 of 2022 filed by the appellants as the writ petitioners vide the common judgment and order dated 26.09.2022.
4. Appellants as the writ petitioners had filed the related writ petitions assailing the modifications made to Regulation 9.2 of the Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University Undergraduate Academic 2 Regulations whereby it has been made mandatory to clear all backlogs till the third year for promotion/registration to 1st semester of the fourth year B.Sc. (Hons) Agricultural course for the academic year 2022-23. Consequently, appellants sought for a direction to the respondents for their promotion to the 1st semester of the fourth year B.Sc (Hons) Agricultural course.
5. Appellants are pursuing B.Sc. (Hons) Agricultural course in the Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (briefly, 'the Agricultural University' hereinafter). All the appellants have backlogs in the second and third years, the details of which have been mentioned by the learned Single Judge in paragraph 4 of the judgment under appeal in a tabular form. According to the appellants, they should be promoted to the fourth year irrespective of whether they have backlogs or not in the previous year(s). However, the amended Regulation 9.2 has come in the way. The amended Regulation 9.2 was put to challenge on the ground that the same is not in conformity with the report of the Fifth Deans' Committee 3 constituted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
6. Learned Single Judge referred to the unamended Regulation 9.2 which may be extracted as under:
"9.2 Promotion to second year: A candidate is automatically promoted to second year irrespective of the number of courses as absent/failed courses in the first year.
Promotion to third year: A candidate should have passed all the courses of first year and should not have more than 6 courses of second year as backlog courses (failed).
Promotion to fourth year: A candidate should have passed all the courses of second year and should not have more than 6 courses of third year as backlog courses (failed).
(Implemented from the academic year 2008-09 onwards)"
7. From the above, learned Single Judge noted that for a candidate to be eligible for promotion to the fourth year, he was required to pass all the courses of second year and should not have more than six courses of third year as backlogs.
8. In exercise of powers conferred by the Acharya N.G.Ranga Agricultural University Act, 1963 and following formation of the State of Telangana, the related Regulations 4 called, the PJTSAU Regulations, 2016 were framed commencing from the academic year 2016-17 onwards. Learned Single Judge noted that the said Regulations would apply to students admitted from the academic year 2016-17. All the appellants were admitted either during the academic year 2016-17 or thereafter and therefore those regulations would be applicable to the appellants, including amended Regulation 9.2.
9. We may now refer to the amended Regulation 9.2 which is as under:
"9.2 PROMOTION TO SECOND YEAR:
A candidate is automatically promoted to second year irrespective of the number of courses as absent/failed courses in the first year:
PROMOTION TO THIRD YEAR: A candidate should have passed all the courses of first year and should not have more than 6 courses of second year as backlog courses (absent/failed) PROMOTION TO FOURTH YEAR: The students admitted from 2016-17 onwards need to pass all the I, II and III year courses by the end of III year for registering final year courses/Student Ready programmes including electives if any. The non-gradial courses/Student Ready programmes and electives if any are considered on par with other courses for the purpose of promotion to the next year for the students admitted from 2016-17 onwards."5
10. From the above it is seen that as per the amended Regulation 9.2, a candidate is automatically promoted to the second year irrespective of the number of courses he has passed in the first year. However, in respect of promotion to the third year, a candidate should pass all the courses of the first year and should not have more than six courses of the second year as backlog courses. Regarding promotion to the fourth year, the amended Regulation mandates that students admitted from 2016-17 onwards are required to pass all the preceding three years courses by the end of third year for registering final year courses.
11. Insofar the argument that report of the Fifth Deans' Committee was not considered before making the amendment thereby vitiating the same, learned Single Judge held that the report was recommendatory in nature and could not be construed as mandatory. Even if the report is construed to be mandatory, learned Single Judge held that the appellants would have to demonstrate that the report recommended that without clearing all the subjects up to the third year, a student would be eligible 6 for promotion to the fourth year, which they failed to do. Learned Single Judge thereafter took the view that appellants were under a misconception that the Fifth Deans' Committee had recommended promotion of candidates to the fourth year without clearing all the subjects up to the third year.
12. In any view of the matter, learned Single Judge did not find any justifiable reason to render the amended Regulation 9.2 nugatory.
13. There is one more aspect which was taken note of by the learned Single Judge. W.P.No.32451 of 2022 was earlier filed before this Court by the petitioners in W.P.Nos.34217 and 34245 of 2022 along with Mr. Vangala Sainath Reddy seeking a direction to the respondents to promote those petitioners to the fourth year without insisting on clearance of backlogs. The said writ petition was dismissed by this Court on 18.08.2022 by holding that the petitioners were not entitled for the said relief. No appeal was preferred against the order dated 18.08.2022. Therefore, the said order had attained finality. Now in the 7 garb of questioning validity of Regulation 9.2, the related writ petitions came to be filed seeking the same relief. In the circumstances, learned Single Judge took the view that the writ petitions were devoid of any merit and accordingly dismissed the same.
14. We concur with the views expressed by the learned Single Judge.
15. First and foremost, the report of the Fifth Deans' Committee does not say that students should be promoted to the fourth year without insisting on clearing all the subjects. Secondly, there is no valid ground to invalidate the amended Regulation 9.2. Thirdly, in view of Regulation 9.2, as it stands today, which we have analysed above, relief sought for by the appellants cannot be acceded to and was rightly turned down by the learned Single Judge. We are of the considered opinion that the appellants have no legal right whatsoever to insist on getting promoted to the fourth year despite having multiple backlogs in the preceding years.
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16. For the reasons indicated above, the writ appeals are devoid of any merit and are accordingly dismissed. We thought of imposing costs on the appellants, but considering the fact that the appellants are students, we refrain from doing so.
Miscellaneous applications pending, if any, shall stand closed.
______________________________________ UJJAL BHUYAN, CJ ______________________________________ C.V.BHASKAR REDDY, J 21.10.2022 vs