SAROJ RANI Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition by 40 students of Dehat Vikas College of Pharmacy, Tigaon, district Faridabad, respondent No.4, for seeking an appropriate writ or direction to the Technical Education Department of the State Government respondent No.l and the State Board of Technical Education (hereinafter referred to as 'the State Board') respondent No.2 to hold examination for the second and final year of the 2-Year Diploma Course in Pharmacy.

(2.) Briefly stated, the material facis are that one Dehat Educational Society registered under the Societies Registration Act established the aforesaid College at Tiagaon. In accordance with the provisions of the All India Council for Technical Education Act, 1987, (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'), the Society applied for approval of the All India Council for Technical Education (hereinafter referred to as 'Central Council') to start the Diploma Course in Pharmacy. The Central Council initially issued approval vide Annexure P-2 dated January 1, 1992, for the said Course during the year 1991-92 with an initial annual intake of 40 subject to some conditions laid down in the letter of approval. For the present purposes, the relevant condition was that admission shall be on merits as per the guidelines issued by the Central Council from time to time and that no capitation fee or donation of any kind shall be charged for admissions. The above letter was followed by letter Annexure P-3 dated September 25,1992. This was issued in continuation of the earlier letter Annexure P-2 dated January 1, 1992. It was stated that on a consideration of the observations and recommendations of the Expert Committee which had visited the College on July 1, 1992, the Central Council had accorded approval to the Society for starting the Diploma Course at the College for the academic year 1992-93 with an intake of 60 students in the first year of the Course subject to the conditions laid down in the letter. Condition No.1 was that infrastructural and other facilities including equipment, faculty etc. for the second year classes should be provided by April, 1993 as per the norms of the Central Council. In condition No.6 it was repeated that admission shall be made on merits and as per the guidelines issued by the Central Council from time to time and no capitation fee or donation of any kind shall be charged for the admissions. It was made clear that in the event of non- compliance by the College with the conditions laid down, the approval was liable to be withdrawn. The Society was also informed that the Experts' Committee of the Northern Regional Committee would again visit the College by May 1993 to assess the compliance with the conditions laid down in the letter. It is not disputed that the admission to various technical institutions in the State is done by the State Board at a centralised place by issuing a common admission notice. The guidelines referred to in letters Annexures P-2 and P-3, therefore, implied that admission was to be made through the centralised system of admission conducted by the State Board. It is further not disputed that without following the said procedure the College respondent No.4 made admissions not only to the first year of the Course but also to the second year of the Course at its own level. The dispute with regard to the admissions to first year is the subject matter of another writ petition, CWP No.7410 of 1993, which is pending. We are concerned with the admission to the second year Course which has been made directly by the College at its own level.

(3.) The case set up by the petitioners is that they had taken admission in the Diploma Course in Pharmacy being conducted by a duly approved institution, that they had pursued the curriculum and had attended requisite number of lecturers and that for no fault of theirs they being arbitrarily denied registration, so that they can not take the examination by the State Board respondent No.2, which is the examining body for the students studying in the Diploma Course in Pharmacy. They have further stated that there is a provision in the statutory Education Regulations framed under the Indian Pharmacy Act for admission of 10 +2 candidates with science directly to the second year course of diploma in Pharmacy. It was in accordance with the said Regulation that they were eligible and had been given admission by the College. It was further stated in the petition that at one stage the Central Council had served the Society managing the College show cause notice why the approval accorded to the College be not withdrawn, but on the explanation furnished by the Society further action in pursuance of the show cause notice had been dropped vide letter Annexure P- 8 dated October 26, 1993. It was lastly submitted that the State Board was going to hold examination for the second year from January 5,1994, and the said Board be directed to register the petitioners, issue them roll numbers and permit them to take the examination and declare their results along with other students appearing in that examination.