HYDERABAD: Justice T Vinod Kumar of the Telangana High Court has directed the Sports Authority of Telangana to provide compensation to M Sreeshwan, a student who was wrongfully denied admission under the sports quota despite his notable achievements in chess at national and international levels.
The court ruled that the petitioner should be paid the difference in tuition fee between the college of his preference, where he would have secured admission under the sports quota, and the college where he is currently pursuing his engineering course based on general merit. The compensation should also include transportation charges incurred by the student.
Justice Vinod Kumar passed the order after hearing a writ petition filed by Sreeshwan, who challenged the action of the convener, TS EAPCET-2024, Telangana Council of Higher Education, denying him admission under the sports quota, terming it as arbitrary, illegal and violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.
The petitioner, who secured the 15,884th rank in the TS EAPCET-2024 held on May 9, 2024, had applied for admission to Computer Science and Engineering under the sports quota, citing his credentials as an International Master in chess and winner of medals in both the Asian Youth and World Youth Chess Championships in 2019. As per GO Ms No 2 dated September 22, 2020, he claimed eligibility under priority serial No 6 and 8, which would have secured him a seat in a college of his first choice.
Despite this, his application was marked ‘not eligible’ in the provisional list released by the JNTU Hyderabad. The court observed that the petitioner suffered due to the denial of admission under the sports quota, which forced him to secure a seat based on merit ranking, thereby affecting his choice of institution.
Justice Vinod Kumar directed the petitioner to submit the fee difference and transportation costs to the Sports Authority of Telangana, with copies to the convener, TS EAPCET-2024, Telangana Council of Higher Education, and the registrar, JNTUH, within two weeks.
Upon receipt of the details, the sports authority must process and disburse the compensation within four weeks.
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