AJAN BHATTACHARYA Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition, which is in the nature of Public Interest Litigation, has been filed by two petitioners, who are the practising Advocates of the Calcutta High Court and assert themselves as the responsible citizens with social obligations having duty to see that there is no violation of statutory provisions particularly in the field of education. They also give out a purpose of eradicating illegal, collusive and damaging activities of the university authorities in Calcutta University, Vidyasagar University, Burdwan University and Kalyani University in granting affiliation to number of unrecognized colleges in the State of West Bengal for running teacher training courses, which colleges have not obtained recognition from the National Council for Teacher Education under the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993. The petitioners have joined all the abovenamed universities as parties and also have further joined the individual colleges. Their concern shown for filing the petition is to save the students who would not be able to get a valid B.Ed, degree from the respondent colleges on account of the fact that the colleges in which they are taking training are not recognized by the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE for short). It is pointed out that huge expenditure is made by the guardians of these students for all the education, particularly for prosecuting the B.Ed, course and all that would be wasted on account of the fact that the colleges in which they are educated are unrecognized colleges and, therefore, the universities would not be in a position to confer upon them a valid B.Ed, degree which is a valid qualification for getting the employment as a teacher. Shortly stated, the petitioners contend that in the absence of such a recognition from the NCTE under the NCTE Act, 1993, no affiliation could have been granted by any of these universities to such colleges and, therefore, the certificates issued by the concerned universities to the students of such institutes after the examination, would be simply invalid in terms of the statutory provisions, more particularly, under section 16 of the NCTE Act. The petitioners have pointed out that the Calcutta University had granted affiliation to 11 colleges which was not recognized by the NCTE, the Vidyasagar University also had granted affiliation to approximately 8 unrecognized colleges, Burdwan University had also given affiliation to 8 colleges while Kalyani University has given affiliation to one or more unrecognized colleges, which act was completely illegal in the absence of the recognition of such colleges by the NCTE. It is reiterated that unfortunately, the students have no knowledge that the certificates granted by the university for prosecuting the course of B.Ed, would be of no consequence.

(2.) The petitioners have also filed a list of recognized colleges under the NCTE Act affiliated to these very universities. According to the petitioners, the unrecognized institutes and the affiliating universities are misleading the students by imparting the course, holding examination and granting certificates without any authority under the law and as such, the certificates of the students would be simply rendered as of no value. Various provisions under section 16 etc. are relied upon by the petitioners and quoted in the petition.

(3.) It is also pointed out that the NCTE, Eastern Regional Committee, Bhubaneswar has published and circulated a public notice and sent it to the universities of the Eastern Region and also got it published in the newspaper on 7th October, 2005, itself suggesting that the teacher education qualification obtained from the institutions not recognized by the NCTE is not valid for employment under Central Government or any State Government or university or any school, college or other educational body aided by the Central Government or any State Government. It is pointed out that in that notice the NCTE has also advised the students to verify the status of recognition of the institution for conducting a particular teacher education programmed by the NCTE, before applying for the admission in the institution. In the very notice, the NCTE had also advised all the examining bodies to follow the central statute and not to grant affiliation for imparting teacher training course which are not recognized by the NCTE. Further in the same notice, the affiliating universities were also advised not to allow the students of such unrecognized colleges to appear in the B.Ed, final examination.