MUTHAYAMMAL EDUCATIONAL TRUST & RESEARCH FOUNDATION Vs. MEMBER SECRETARY, ALL INDIA COUNCIL FOR TECHNICAL EDUCATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is an educational trust, which has been started in the year 1983 and renamed in the year 2009 and it has been running two colleges. The petitioner trust started Muthayamal Engineering College in the year 2000-01 and another standalone MCA college in the same name during the academic year 2001-02 at Kakkaveri Village, Rasipuram Taluk, Namakkal District, after obtaining appropriate approvals from the authorities and also affiliation from the University. The permanent affiliation for certain courses was also granted by the Anna University. The All India Council for Technical Education (in short, "AICTE")/the respondents 1 to 3 also granted provisional affiliation year after year from 2000-01 till date. It is also stated that the petitioner College had obtained Autonomous status based upon the order passed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Anna University.

(2.) It is stated that the petitioner Trust had established the Engineering Colleges after obtaining appropriate approval from the competent authorities, including the building approval from the President, Kakkaveri Village Panchayat by the proceedings dtd. 2/11/1999 and affiliation from the Anna University.

(3.) While so, the petitioner trust decided to merge the MCA Standalone college along with the Engineering College and submitted the online application on 28/2/2019 to the AICTE. The Scrutiny Committee reports dtd. 14/3/2019 and 23/3/2019 had shown the deficiency only with respect to the building plan not being approved by the Directorate of Town and Country Planning (DTCP). It is submitted by the petitioner college that the seventh respondent - Village Panchayat forwarded the plan papers pertaining to their college to the Deputy Director, DTCP. In the said backdrop, the petitioner college is before this Court seeking a direction to the AICTE to grant approval to the proposed merger without insisting on DTCP approval, by accepting the approval granted by the Panchayat to the petitioner.