RAJESH GOVIND VIRKAR Vs. S K MAHAJAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) For the sins of the management of an educational institution, should the students be made to suffer ? That is the question which is highlighted in this writ petition.

(2.) The petitioners and respondents Nos. 4 to 17 are the students who joined a polytechnic run by respondents Nos. 1 and 1-A on the strength of certain representation contained in the prospectus issued for the year 1987-88. They also rely on an order passed by this Court in an earlier writ petition filed by the respondents Nos. 1 and 1-A.

(3.) Respondents Nos. 1 and 7-A, husband and wife, are connected with an institution known as Engineering Educational Trust. It appears that the said trust was established in the year 1969 and it is a registered public trust. The said trust started a polytechnic at Dombivli for diploma course in engineering education and sought Government recognition. The Government gave recognition to the institution initially by an order dated June 15, 1984 and subsequently by another order dated July 3, 1985. Petitioners Nos. 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 13 and respondents Nos. 5, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 applied for and secured admission for the first year of a technical course in engineering on or before June 24, 1987. At that time they had relied on the prospectus issued by the institution which in terms referred to the permission granted by the Director of Technical Education, Maharashtra.