2. The young petitioners before us in these two writ petitions brought under Article 226 of the Constitution of India are all studying engineering. But they are in the final year of a three-year diploma course, not the four-year degree course; and that, precisely, is the problem they bring to us. All of them aspire to a full-fledged engineering degree. Normally, a graduate degree in engineering requires a student to take a competitive centralized test administered after the 12th standard. Successful candidates are then enrolled in a four-year degree course. This is therefore a total of 16 years of education, on the 10+2+4 paradigm (ten years in school, two years in what is or used to be called junior college, and then four years in the engineering degree course). The other ‘route’ is for a student to directly enrol after finishing school, i.e. completing the 10th standard, in a three-year diploma course. This earns the student a diploma, not a degree, and the total education is 10+3, or 13 years. Assuming a student completes school at the age of 16, an engineering degree will require him to study for another six years, until the age of 22. A diploma in engineering, on the other hand, can be obtained at the age of 19. Therefore, if two students complete
