ORISSA MANGEMENT COLLEGES ASSOCIATION Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Four writ petitions have been filed challenging constitutional validity of the Orissa Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fee) Ordinance, 2007 (hereinafter referred to as the "said Ordinance"). During the course of hearing of the matter before the Court, the said Ordinance was replaced by an Act and came to be known as Orissa Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fee) Act. 2007 (hereinafter referred to as the "said Act"). Out of the four writ petitions, in W.P. (C) No. 4073 of 2007 Article 15(5) of the Constitution which has come by way of 93rd Amendment to the Constitution has also been challenged. Learned counsel for the petitioner, however later on gave up the said challenge.

(2.) But, in all these writ petitions the constitutional validity of the said Ordinance as replaced by the said Act was challenged.

(3.) First of these four writ petitions was registered as W.P. (C) No. 2446 of 2007, which was filed by the Orissa Management Colleges Association. That is an Association of 22 Private Unaided Professional Educational Institutions claiming to impart education in management studies and the said Association is registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. The writ petitioner in W.P. (C) No. 3203 of 2007 is Kanakmajnari Trust, a Trust established to impart education in Pharmacy through its Private Unaided Educational Institution, which is in existence since 1982. The petitioner in W.P. (C) No. 4073 of 2007 is also a registered Association under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and is an Association of Private Unaided Engineering Colleges of Orissa and is engaged in imparting education in different courses in the subject of Engineering and Management. The petitioner in W.P. (C) No. 3689 of 2007 is an Association of Private Unaided Medical and Dental Colleges in Orissa claiming to impart education from the academic session 2006-07 to the Medical students and claiming to impart education to Dental students from 2005-2006. Since in all the writ petitions, the point of law is the same and the questions of fact are almost identical, by this common judgment all those questions are decided.