Universities

Admission

— Reservation of seats — Engineering course — Admission obtained and course completed by a candidate claiming to belong to a reserved category (Halba ST) while he belonged to general category (Koshti) — Whether he should be allowed to obtain the degree — Court's approach — Conduct of the candidate and doctrine of proportionality based on Wednesbury unreasonableness relevant factors — Exercise of discretionary jurisdiction under Art. 142 by Supreme Court — Prima facie there was no commission of fraud and no lack of bona fides on the part of appellant candidate as question whether Koshti-Halbas were members of ST was not finally decided by court — Held on facts, appellant should be allowed to obtain the degree — However, having regard to the fact that appellant had not secured the admission purely on the basis of merit but on the basis that he belonged to a reserved category and that State also incurred heavy expenditure in imparting such professional education, award of degree shall be subject to payment of Rs 1 lakh by appellant to the State by way of recompensation, (2006) 7 SCC 501-A

Constitution of India

— Art. 142 — Exercise of discretionary jurisdiction under — In order to do complete justice between the parties, Supreme Court must consider all relevant aspects including its own decisions — Court should have regard to recent trend of decisions preferring doctrine of proportionality emerging from Wednesbury unreasonableness, (2006) 7 SCC 501-B