AKHIL BHARTIYA GRAHAK PANCHAYAT Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ON 31st October, 2002 a Bench of eleven judges of the Supreme Court delivered judgment in (T. M. A. Pai Foundation v. State of Kamataka) , 2003 (3) Bom. C. R. (S. C.)603 : 2002 (8) S. C. C. 481. The judgment of the Supreme Court considered issues and laid down constitutional principles of vital importance to the dispensation of education, particularly educational instruction in institutions of professional and higher learning. Eleven questions were formulated by the bench covering a wide spectrum relating to the extent of autonomy enjoyed by privately managed institutions, many of them not being recipients of aid from the State; the extent to which that autonomy would include within its purview the selection of students and the determination of fees; the permissible domain of the regulatory power of the State and the ambit of the rights conferred by the Constitution on religious and linguistic minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. Since 1993, admissions to a wide range of educational institutions including those imparting education that leads to the conferment of professional degree in Medicine had been governed by the principles which were enunciated by the Supreme Court in (J. P. Unnikrishnanv. State ofandhra pradesh) , 1993 (1) S. C. C. 645. The validity of the scheme formulated by the supreme Court in Unnikrishnan was considered by the Supreme Court in t. M. A. Pai Foundation. That scheme was held to be unconstitutional principally because the concept of "payment seats" and "free seats" had failed to achieve the object which it was intended to sub-serve and was found to have operated as a cross-subsidization of the affluent by other students not possessed of comparable economic resources.

(2.) THE judgment of the Supreme Court in T. M. A. Pai Foundation was interpreted by regulatory authorities in various States, often without a degree of consistency. The Government in the State of Maharashtra issued Government Resolutions inter alia on 5th April, 2003 and 24th April, 2003 designating the constitution of an authority for determining the fee structure in medical colleges and prescribing a methodology for carrying out admissions. These government Resolutions came to be questioned before this Court in a batch of writ petitions principally by private unaided colleges who contended that the action taken by the State Government, trenched upon their autonomy which was recognized by the judgment of the Supreme Court. In the meantime, a Constitution Bench of five Judges of the Supreme Court was constituted in order to set at rest litigation which had taken place in several High courts in regard to the interpretation of the judgment in T. M. A. Pai Foundation. The Constitution Bench delivered its judgment in (Islamic Academic of education v. State of Kamataka) , on 14th August, 2003. The judgment is reported in 2004 (1) Bom. C. R. (S. C.)593 : 2003 (6) SCALE 325. The batch of matters placed before this Court was then finally heard and disposed of on 23rd August, 2003 following the principles enunciated in T. M. A. Pai Foundation and islamic Academy of Education (supra ). The Deemed Universities and this batch of petitions

(3.) THE batch of petitions which is before the Court in these proceedings under Article 226 of the Constitution has been heard separately. This batch relates to Deemed Universities recognized under section 3 of the University grants Commission Act, 1956. There is before the Court on the one hand the case of the Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University which inter alia conducts a medical and Dental College at Pune. Then there is the Dr. D. Y. Patil Vidyapeeth which conducts Medical and Dental Colleges leading up to the conferment of the M. B. B. S. and B. D. S. degrees at Navi Mumbai and a Medical College at pune. The Dr. D. Y. Patil Vidyapeeth, Pimpri, Pune has been recognized as a deemed University on 11th January, 2003 whereas the institution at Navi mumbai was so recognized on 20th June, 2002.