Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
R.S. Mongia, S.S. Sudhalkar and Swatanter Kumar

JUDGMENT

Swatanter Kumar, J.

1. A simple but important question of far-reaching consequences arises for consideration in the present writ petition. The Division Bench of this Court while hearing the present case viz C.W.P. No. 9699 of 1997 titled Indu Gupta v. Director Sports, Punjab etc. found it difficult to follow the view expressed by another Hon'ble Division Bench of this Court in the case of Punjabi University, Patiala v. Gurbinder Singh, L.P.A. No. 770 of 1995 and Ms. Mukta Bansal v. State of Punjab C.W.P. No. 12093of 1997. Resultantly, the bench hearing Ms, Indu's case passed the following order of reference to a larger bench.

"Petitioner applied for admission to B. Tech. Course. She claimed the benefit of reservation in the sports category. She could not get the gradation certificate countersigned by the Director of Sports, Punjab. So, she was not considered for admission in the reserved category of sports personnel. The argument advanced by the counsel representing petitioner is that gradation certificate is based on her performance in the sports meets and it is only one evidencing the existence of facts entitling her to the benefit of reservation. So, the condition that gradation certificate should be sent along with the application form for admission is only a formality and candidate need produce the gradation certificate only at the time of admission. In support of the contention, he relies on the observations made by the learned single Judge of this Court in Civil Writ Petition No. 11787 of 1995 decided on September 8, 1995. In the L.P.A. filed against that judgment by the Punjabi University, Patiala, the Division Bench agreed with the reasons given by the learned single Judge.

In Civil Writ Petitions Nos. 9211 of 1997 (Daljit Singh) v. (State of Punjab, decided on August 26, 1997 and 12093 of 1997 (Ms. Mukta Bansal v. (State of Punjab), decided on August 28, 1997, other D. Bs. took the view that application for admission should have the copy of the gradation certificate issued by the Director of Sports, and failure to send the gradation certificate along with the application is fatal and that candidate who produces the gradation certificate after the submission of the application is not entitled to the benefit of reservation, as a sports person. In view of this divergent view, we refer this case to a Full Bench, for consideration."

2. As is apparent from the order of reference that the case itself has been referred for decision to the Full Bench, we consider it appropriate to give certain further facts giving rise to this writ petition.

3. The petitioner Indu Gupta had participated in various events of table tennis Championship at Junior State and National Table Tennis Championship, 1996. The petitioner in all these events had participated and represented Union Territory of Chandigarh and was admittedly resident of Union Territory, Chandigarh for entire period of her education. She passed 10+2 examination as a regular student of Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector-18, Chandigarh. For the purpose of getting admission to the professional colleges under the sports category, it is necessary that the applicant should submit sports gradation certificate issued by the Director, Sports, Union Territory, Chandigarh. According to the petitioner, she was also entitled to get a seat in the Sports quota in the professional colleges in the State of Punjab and the Director, Sports, Punjab was obliged to countersign the gradation certificate in accordance with the policy of the State of Punjab dated 4th August, 1992, Annexure P/14 to the writ petition. She submitted her gradation certificate for countersignatures on 27th June, 1997 under diary No. 5660, but the respondent-Director, Sports, Punjab did not sign the certificate and as such she could not produce the certificate on the date of her interview at Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar on 5-7-1997. Having failed to get the relief at the hands of the respondents........