Within a span of just couple of weeks, two separate Benches of the Supreme Court have come out with contrasting orders on the issue of granting relief to engineering and pharmacy colleges found deficient for admitting students.
While one Bench threw out petitions by 10 colleges which the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) found deficient to admit students this year, another Bench on Wednesday gave a favourable order to two other colleges despite the engineering education regulator recording serious deficiencies in one of them.
The latest order from the Vacation Bench of the apex court could pave the way for relief to similarly-placed colleges, which were at the receiving end of orders passed by AICTE cancelling their admissions this year.
The two colleges that got relief are Vijaya Institute of Technology for Women at Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh) and Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar Institute of Technology, Mathura. In the latter case, the AICTE faulted the institute for showing no occupancy certificate. The college had been running for past 11 years. On April 10, 2018, the order cancelling admission was passed despite the college submitting the said certificate online on April 7 and at the office of AICTE a day before passing of the order.
The Bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Indu Malhotra took a considerate view of the above facts and told counsel of AICTE Harish Pandey, “You can’t take a technical objection that certificate was not filed in time. You have allowed them to operate for 11 years. It will be a national waste, where will the students go.” While passing the order, the Bench noted this was not a case where faculty or infrastructure was lacking.
In the other matter, AICTE listed out their deficiencies that included lack of a demarcation plan as two colleges (Engineering and Pharmacy) operated from the same campus. The college showed an occupancy certificate from a rural authority and the rulebook of AICTE requires an engineering college in rural area to possess at least 7 acre land. The college only had four acres for engineering college. The college did not pay its faculty Government mandated pay scales. On infrastructure front, the college lacked seminar block, special toilets for handicapped and a barrier free environment for disabled and elderly. The Bench allowed the college to proceed with admissions while directing AICTE to file its affidavit in two weeks.
But not all colleges coming to apex court have been this lucky. On June 4, a Vacation Bench of Justices Adarsh K Goel and Ashok Bhushan dismissed petitions of 10 colleges denied admission by the AICTE and Pharmacy Council of India.
Interim orders by courts in admission matters have been a cause of worry for Supreme Court. On April 11, 2017, a bench headed by CJI Dipak Misra said, “There is no reason to invite a disaster by way of an interim order. A Judge has to constantly remind himself about the precedents in the field and not to be swayed away by his own convictions.”
The apex court in Parshavnath Charitable Trust vs AICTE decided on December 13, 2012 held, “All colleges which have been granted approval/affiliation by April 30, shall alone be included in the brochure/advertisement for the purpose of admission and none thereafter.” It noted that AICTE is an expert body and “once approval is granted or declined by such expert body, the courts would normally not substitute their view in this regard.”