RAVINDER JAKHAR AND ORS Vs. HARYANA STATE INDUSTRIAL AND INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION AND ANR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners seek for a mandamus to direct the respondent No. 1 to give the appointment to the petitioners in pursuance to the result which was declared on 20.08.2008 by the 2nd respondent for the post of Assistant Manager. The appointment was refused to the petitioners on the ground that the petitioners 1 & 2 had secured degrees through the Distant Education mode from Janardhan Rai Nagar (JRN) Rajasthan Vidyapeeth University Partap Nagar, Udaipur and as regards the petitioners 3 and 4, the contention was that they had secured degrees through Distant Education mode from the Institute of Advance Studies in Education (IASE) Gandhi Vidya Mandir, Sardar Shahar, Rajasthan, which degrees the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) has not recognized.

(2.) The issue whether the degree issued by a University established under an enactment of the Central or the State Legislature would require an approval from AICTE, was considered by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Bharthidasan University and Anr. v. All India Council for Technical Education and Ors., 2001 AIR(SC) 2861, when it held that no such approval was necessary. Again, the contention that a degree awarded to a student who has undertaken the course through the Distant Education mode was not shown to have been approved by the AICTE is a matter that had fallen for consideration before the Distant Education Council through a Joint Committee which accepted the recommendation of the Committee appointed by the Distance Education Council (DEC) for examining the institutions which had applied for ex-post facto approval. The value of the degrees offered by JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth University was considered by me in a decision in Vikash Kumar v. Haryana State Pollution Control Board and another in Civil Writ Petition No. 1405 of 2009, dated 13.01.2010. The same point was also decided in subsequent decision in Vipin Kumar v. Haryana Vidyut Parsaran Nigam Limited, Shakti Bhawan and Ors. in Civil Writ Petition No. 575 of 2009, dated 04.02.2010. The point that falls for consideration in this case is the very same issue as what I have decided in the above said two cases.

(3.) The learned Counsel appearing for the respondent would submit that the decisions rendered by this Court have been subject of an appeal before the Division Bench of this Court and the same issue also awaits consideration by the Hon'ble Supreme Court. As of today, there is no order directing the transfer of this case to the Hon'ble Division Bench nor there is any stay of the proceedings before this Court. The decisions taken by this Court have not been shown to have been set aside by any superior Court and, therefore, a decision that has been rendered on due legal consideration of the matter need not, in my view, await till the Hon'ble Division Bench or the Hon'ble Supreme Court also takes a decision on the matter. On the other hand, it shall be always open for any party, who feels aggrieved, to seek for a correction in a higher forum, if there is a scope for it.