EXCEL ENGINEERING COLLEGE, Vs. ANNA UNIVERSITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner herein is an Engineering College at Namakkal District established in the year 2007. The Petitioner/College offering 15 courses in its institution. With intention to introduce a new Under Graduate course namely B.E., Safety and Fire Engineering Course the Petitioner/Excel Engineering College, has submitted application to AICTE for extension of approval for the existing course and for starting new course namely B.E., Safety and Fire Engineering. After making its application to the AICTE, the petitioner/Institute also informed the 2nd respondent/the Director, Centre for Academic Courses, seeking inclusion of new course in the list of courses in Anna University for the academic year 2019-2020 onwards so as to enable the Institutions like the petitioner, to apply through online portal. The 2nd respondent informed the petitioner that being a new course not currently offered by Anna University the curriculum/syllabus, has to be formulated for the new course. In turn, on receipt of the said communication from the 2nd respondent, the petitioner wrote back to the 1st respondent/Anna University, requesting the Authorities to formulate curriculum/syllabus, at the earliest to enable the Institutions, to avail the benefit of new course introduced by AICTE for the academic year 2019-2020 itself.

(2.) The 2nd respondent/Centre for Academic Courses, informed the petitioner vide letter dated 05.02.2019, that the Vice Chancellor, Anna University has approved the new course namely B.E Safety and Fire Engineering from the academic year 2019-2020. This communication was followed by another intimation from the 2nd respondent indicating the process to be carried out by the institution for starting the said new course. The petitioner/Institute convened its syllabus committee on 28.03.2019 and 29.03.2019 to frame syllabus for the 1st and 2nd semesters.

(3.) Meanwhile, AICTE has granted approval to the petitioner college for all the existing course and also the newly introduced Under Graduate Course namely B.E, Safety and Fire Engineering Course from the academic year 2019-2020 onwards. On receipt of the said approval dated 29.04.2019, the petitioner submitted its representation to the 3rd respondent/Centre for Affiliation of Institutions, seeking affiliation for the said course from the academic year 2019-2020. The 2nd respondent/Centre for Academic Course, vide letter dated 06.05.2019 granted approval for the commencement of the said course and also intimated the Commissioner of Technical Education for inclusion of the new course in the admission process for the academic year 2019-2020. Having completed the entire process, the petitioner sought for Affiliation from the Anna University. However, the Anna University has granted Affiliation only to the existing P.G courses and not for the newly introduced course namely B.E, Safety and Fire Engineering. On 21.05.2019, the 3rd respondent/Centre for Affiliation of Institutions, communicated to the petitioner that affiliation for the new course for the academic year 2019-2020 cannot be granted, since the cut off date for the Affiliation process crossed.