IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
WRIT PETITION NO.9039 OF 2011
Sri Balaji Society, a Trust running the following Institutes:
1. Balaji Institute of Modern Management
(BIMM)
2. Balaji Institute of Telecom & Management
(BITM),
3. Balaji Institute of International Business
(BIIB).
4. Balaji Institute of Management & HRD
(BIMHRD).
All having their respective addresses
at 55/2-7, Tathawade, Wakad,
Pune-411 004 represented through the
President of Sri Balaji Society Prof.
(Colonel A. Balasubramanian) …...Petitioners.
V/s.
1. All
(AICTE), 7th Floor,
Janpath, New Delhi-110 001 represented
through the Chairman, AICTE and the
Member Secretary, AICTE.
2.
Ministry of Human Resource
Development, Shastri Bhawan,
3. Directorate of Technical Education,
its office at 3, Mahapalika Marg,
Post Box No.1967, Mumbai-400 001.
4. The Regional Officer,
AICTE-Western Regional Office,
having office at 2nd Floor, Industrial
Opp. Churchgate Railway Station,
Churchgate, Mumbai - 400 020.
5. State of
Secretary, Higher & Technical Education,
Mantralaya, Mumbai - 400 032. …...Respondents.
Mr. Iqbal Chagla with Navroze Seervai, senior Advocates with Birendra Saraf, Hitesh Jain, Subhash Jadhav & Ms. Stuti Gupta i/b. ALMT Legal for the Petitioners.
Mr. A.A. Kumbhakoni with Rui Rodriques for the respondent No.1.
CORAM : J.P. DEVADHAR AND A.R. JOSHI, JJ.
JUDGMENT RESEVED ON :
JUDGMENT PRONOUNCED ON :
JUDGMENT (PER J.P. DEVADHAR, J.)
1) Rule, returnable forthwith. By consent, the petition is taken up for final hearing.
2) The petitioners are aggrieved by the communications dated 5/10/2011 and 21/10/2011 whereby the petitioners are informed that the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) as well the Appellate Committee of the AICTE respectively, have declined to grant extension of approval to the four management institutes run by the petitioner, during the academic year 2011-12. The petitioners seek a Writ of Certiorari for quashing the said communications and by a Writ of Mandamus seek an order directing the AICTE to forthwith grant extension of approval to the petitioners for the academic year 2011-2012.
3) Facts relevant for the present Writ Petition are that the petitioner Society is a charitable Trust established under the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1950 and also under the Society's Registration Act, 1860. The said Trust inter alia runs the following institutions at Pune since 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2004 respectively.
A) Balaji Institute of Modern Management (BIMM).
B) Balaji Institute of Telecom and Management (BITM).
C) Balaji Institute of International Business (BIIB).
D) Balaji Institute of Management and HRD (BIMHRD).
4) AICTE is established under Section 3 of the All India Council for Technical Education Act, 1987 ('1987 Act' for short). It is the duty of the AICTE as per Section 10 of the 1987 Act to take all steps to ensure co-ordinated and integrated development of technical education and maintenance of standards by the technical institutions throughout the country. For that purpose, Sections 22 & 23 of the 1987 Act empowers the Central Government and the AICTE respectively to make rules and regulations by notification in the official gazette, which under Section 24 of the 1987 Act are required to be laid before the Parliament.
5) It is not in dispute that though the aforesaid four institutes were established by the petitioners in the years 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2004 respectively, the AICTE granted its initial approval to the petitioner Trust to run the above institutes from the academic year 2007-08 (commencing in June, 2007) by its communications dated 13-12-2007, 15/17-10-2008, 13-12-2007 and 17-10-2007 respectively.
6) As per the norms laid down by the AICTE, every approved technical institute is required to obtain extension of approval every year from the AICTE. It is not in dispute that in the present case, in respect of the four management institutes run by the petitioner Trust, the AICTE after granting initial approval for the academic year 2007-08, has granted extension of approval for the academic year 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11 respectively.
7) For the academic year 2011-12, the AICTE initially issued a notice to the effect that the online applications seeking extension of approval for the academic session commencing from 1/6/2011 to 31/5/2012 shall be made by the institutes between 30/12/2010 to 28/2/2011 and the same would be processed by AICTE between 1/3/2011 to 31/5/2011. By a subsequent announcement on the AICTE web portal, the dates for receiving the online applications were extended upto
8) Accordingly, on 9/10-3-2011 and subsequently on
9)On processing the petitioner's application, the AICTE generated several deficiency reports in June and July, 2011 and admittedly all those deficiencies noticed in the reports have been duly complied with by the four institutes and there are no deficiencies which are yet to be removed.
10) On
11) However, the said extension of approval granted to the petitioners on
12) When the Director of the petitioners approached the WRO of AICTE to enquire as to the reason on the basis of which the grant of extension was arbitrarily withdrawn, the said Director of the petitioners was orally informed that the extension of approval granted on 30/8/2011 as also the email sent on 18/9/2011 was due to technical error.
13) The petitioners thereupon placed the above facts on record and by various letters repeatedly called upon the AICTE to grant extension of approval immediately. As the AICTE failed to do the needful, the petitioners filed a Writ Petition bearing No.8150 of 2011 which was disposed of on
the petitioners.
14) On 15/10/2011 the petitioners received a communication dated 5/10/2011 from the Advisor (Approval) AICTE wherein it was stated that the Council has decided "not to grant extension of approval to those institutions where CBI has filed charge-sheets" and since the President of the Petitioner Trust has been charge sheeted by the CBI the extension of approval cannot be granted to the petitioners.
15) Thereafter, in accordance with the order passed by this Court in Writ Petition No.8150 of 2011, the Appellate Committee of the AICTE heard the representative of the petitioners and by a
communication dated
16) Challenging the communication of the AICTE dated
17) From the decision of the AICTE as also the decision of the Appellate Committed of the AICTE, it is evident that the only ground on which the extension of approval for the academic year 2011-2012 has been denied to the petitioners is that Prof. A. Balasubramanian, President of the petitioner Trust has been charge sheeted by the CBI on 30/11/2010. In fact, Mr. Kumbhakoni, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the AICTE fairly stated before us that apart from the chargesheet filed against the President of the petitioner Trust, there is no other deficiency on the basis of which extension of approval can be denied to the petitioner's four management institutes during the academic year 2011-2012.
18) The question, therefore, to be considered is, whether the AICTE having granted the initial approval to the four management institutes run by the petitioner Trust from the academic year 2007-08 and having granted extension of approval from time to time for the academic years 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11, is justified in refusing to grant extension of approval for the academic year 2011-12 on the ground that the CBI has charge sheeted the President of the petitioner Trust on 30/11/2011 ?
19) As rightly contended by Mr. Iqbal Chagla, learned senior Advocate appearing on behalf of the petitioners, there are no rules or regulations framed under Section 23 or 24 of the 1987 Act either by the Central Government or the AICTE to deny extension of approval to an institution if any of its member or trustee is charge sheeted by CBI. Even the 'Approval Process Handbook' ('Handbook' for short) published by the AICTE for the academic year 2011-2012 does not empower the AICTE to deny extension of approval on that ground. In fact, para 3.1(d) of Chapter II of the Handbook for the academic year 2011-12 reads thus :-
" 3.1(d) No increase shall be given to Institutions where a CBI / CVC / any other investigation agency / Anti Ragging / Punitive action initiated by AICTE for any violation in the norms and standards / enquiries are pending."
It is relevant to note that para 3.1(d) in Chapter II of the 'Approval Process Handbook' published by the AICTE for the academic year 2012-2013 reads thus :-
3.1(d) Any Institution / Society / Trust / Section 25 company or a member belonging to these if charge-sheeted, shall not be considered for extension of approval unless they are acquitted."
Thus, it is evident from the Handbook published by the AICTE for the academic year 2011-2012 that where any enquiry by CBI / CVC / any other investigating agency is pending against an institute, the AICTE is not empowered to deny extension of approval, but in such a case, pending enquiry the institution cannot be given any increase in the intake of students. In the present case, no increase is sought by the petitioners. Therefore, the impugned decisions of the AICTE as also the decision of the Appellate Committee of the AICTE in refusing to grant extension of approval for 2011-2012 being contrary to the 'Approval Process Handbook' for 2011-2012, the said decision cannot be said to be in accordance with law.
20) It is however contended by the counsel for the AICTE that once a policy decision is taken by the AICTE on 10/6/2011, not to grant extension of approval to those institutions against which CBI has filed a charge-sheet and in the present case, since charge-sheet has in fact been filed on 30/11/2010, the AICTE was justified in refusing to grant extension of approval to the petitioners' four management institutions for the academic year 2011-2012.
21) We see no merit in the above contentions, because, firstly, the AICTE by its notice has permitted all the approved institutions to commence admission process for the academic year 2011-2012 after 31/3/2011 and accordingly, the four institutions of the petitioner Trust have commenced admission process after 31/3/2011 and in fact, the academic session for the courses conducted by the four institutions has actually commenced on 1/6/2011. Therefore, the policy decision taken by the AICTE on
22) Apart from the above, if the policy decision dated
23) It is interesting to note that the charge sheet filed by the CBI on 30/11/2010 records that the President of the petitioner Trust dishonestly and fraudulently with intention to cheat the AICTE made false representations and on the basis of such false representations obtained initial approval from the AICTE, for running the aforesaid four institutions and, therefore, the said President of the petitioner Trust is liable to be punished under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code.
24) In the present case, we are neither concerned with the validity of the charge sheet dated
25) In the present case, the AICTE on consideration of the representations made by the President of the petitioner Trust has chosen to regularise the four institutions run by the petitioner Trust from the academic year 2007-08. Even while the CBI investigation relating to the falsity of the representations made by the President of the petitioner Trust while seeking regularisation was in progress, the AICTE has chosen to grant extension of approval for the academic years 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11. Thus, it is evident that in so far as the AICTE is concerned, the falsity in the representations made by the President of the petitioner Trust, if any, did not preclude the AICTE from regularizing or granting extension of approval from time to time. Assuming that the
AICTE was waiting for the CBI to file its final report, the AICTE ought to have acted immediately after the CBI report was filed on
26) In the result, the Writ Petition is allowed. Impugned decision of the AICTE as well as the decision of the Appellate Committee upholding the decision of the AICTE, which are intimated to the petitioners vide communications dated 5/10/2011 and 21/10/2011 are quashed and set aside and the AICTE is directed to grant the extension of approval to all the four institutions of the petitioner Trust for the academic year 2011-12 within four weeks from today. Rule is made absolute in the above terms with no order as to costs.
(A.R. JOSHI, J.) (J.P. DEVADHAR, J.)