CHAIRMAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These writ petitions relate to admission of students to the Polytechnic colleges of the petitioners for the academic year 2017-18.

(2.) The petitioners have established Polytechnic colleges in the State and obtained approval of the All India Council for Technical Education (the AICTE) constituted under the All India Council for Technical Education Act ('the Act') for starting the same. The letters of approval issued to the petitioners by the AICTE provide, among others, that the petitioners shall obtain necessary approval from the concerned Board of Technical Education. Such a condition is imposed by the AICTE while granting approval to start Polytechnic colleges as the examinations of the students admitted in Polytechnic colleges are conducted by the concerned Boards of Technical Education in the respective States. As far as the State of Kerala is concerned, there is no Board of Technical Education and the State Government is conducting the examinations through its Director of Technical Education. The admission of students to Polytechnic colleges in the State is also regulated by the State Government based on merit and in accordance with the principles of reservation through a centralised allotment process. The students who secure admission through the said allotment process are liable to pay only the fees prescribed by the Government in this regard. As far as the Polytechnic colleges in the self financing sector which have been approved by the State are concerned, 50% of their seats are being filled up by the State Government through the allotment process referred to above, after arriving at necessary consensus with the said Polytechnic colleges.

(3.) The petitioner in W.P.(C) No.22511 of 2016 has secured the approval of the AICTE to start a Polytechnic college in the State in the academic year 2016-17. Their case in the writ petition is that despite the positive recommendation made on their application for approval by the Director of Technical Education, the Government is yet to grant the approval sought by them. They have, therefore, approached this Court in the said writ petition for appropriate directions to the State Government to grant the approval sought by them. On 08.07.2016, this Court passed an interim order directing the State Government to allot students under the centralised allotment process to the Polytechnic college of the petitioner, provided they are prepared to accept the fee structure prescribed by the State Government and willing to enter into necessary agreement with the State Government for seat sharing. The said interim order was later modified on 04.04.2016, permitting the petitioner to admit students, as it was found that the State Government has not complied with the interim order dated 08.07.2016. On the strength of the said interim order, the petitioner has admitted students in their Polytechnic college in the academic year 2016-17 and later, as per the interim order dated 09.11.2016, this Court has also permitted the students admitted in their Polytechnic colleges to participate in the examinations conducted by the State Government. The name of the Polytechnic college of the petitioner has not been included in the prospectus issued by the State Government inviting applications for admission of students in the Polytechnic colleges in the State for the academic year 2017-18. According to the petitioner, the said conduct on the part of the State Government would not only deprive an opportunity for the students who are aspiring for admission in the Polytechnic college of the petitioner to undertake their course in that college, but would also create a cloud in the mind of such students as to the legitimacy of the institution of the petitioner. The petitioner, therefore, preferred I.A.No.7652 of 2016 seeking directions to the respondents to consider their institution also for the centralised allotment of students and allot students to their Polytechnic college, if there are students who are willing to undertake courses in their college. It is indicated by the petitioner in their pleadings that they have no objection in the State Government allotting 50% of the seats in their institution to students who are opting to undertake Polytechnic course in their institution on the fee structure prescribed by the Government.