Hyderabad: A PIL has been moved before the Hyderabad High Court challenging Para 33 of Telangana State Private Universities (Establishment and Regulations) Act, 2018 which provides for only 25 per cent reservation of seats for admission into the courses undertaken by private universities for students of Telangana state.
Mr J. Shankar from Karimnagar district and Mr K. Balakrishna Mudiraj from Ranga Reddy district moved the PIL stating that Para 33 of the Act was against the Presidential Order 1974, under which 85 per cent of seats for various courses have to be reserved for the students of Telangana state.
They submitted that under the Presidential Order known as The Andhra Pradesh Educ-ational Institutions (Regulation of Admissions) Order, 85 per cent of seats have to be filled up by students belonging to erstwhile state of AP and after formation of Telangana, these 85 per cent of seats have to be filled up only by students of Telangana state as was case before bifurcation.
They told the court that the Telangana state government had issued Telangana State Private Universities (Establis-hment and Regulations) Act, 2018 in which Para 33 stipulates that 25 per cent of seats for admissions in the courses undertaken by the University shall be exclusively reserved for the students of Telangana stae on the basis of domicile as may be prescribed.
They contended that the state legislature had no power to pass an Act or make a law or provision in violation of Presidential order made under Article 371D which was bro-ught by a constitutional amen-dment by Parliament. Since reservations in educational institutions in Telangana state are exclusively governed by Article 371D and Presidential Order 1974, the state legislature passing an Act bypassing Article 371D would amount to “colourable legislation”.
They urged the court to declare Para 33 of the Act of 2018 which provided only 25 per cent reservation of seats for admission into the courses undertaken by private universities for students of Telangana as illegal.
