SHIV KUMAR JINDAL Vs. PUNJABI UNIVERSITY, PATIALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Seventy students of B.Ed. class of the Government College of Education, Faridkot, have invoked the extraordinary writ jurisdiction of this Court under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of quashing the impugned notification dated 12th September, 1986 (Annexure P-1) issued by the Punjabi University, Patiala, respondent No. 1. By this notification, the Vice-Chancellor of the Punjabi University accepted the recommendations of the Board of Studies in Education made in its meeting held on 25th August, 1986 to the effect that Paper-III of B.Ed. class for 1986-87 session (Indian Education and School Management) be split into the following two papers :-

(2.) The solitary grievance of the petitioners is that they had applied for admission to the B.Ed. class at Faridkot and were so admitted on 30th July, 1986. Regular classes for B.Ed. course had started from 8th August, 1986, and they were being taught strictly in accordance with the syllabus which was already in force in the year 1985-86 and was supposed to continue for the session 1986-87 also. However, on 12th September, 1986, the University issued the notification (Annexure P-1) by which certain amendments had been made in the syllabus for the B.Ed. course for the session 1986-87 though they had already been studying for the last about a month according to the old syllabus. Therefore, the change in the syllabus was neither fair nor just, nor had the impugned changes been made with the approval of the competent authority, that is, the Faculty of Education. Consequently, according to the learned counsel for the petitioners, the Vice-Chancellor of the Punjabi University, Patiala, had no jurisdiction, in law, to change the syllabus in anticipation of the approval of the Faculty of Education and in any case not after the academic session had started.

(3.) After hearing Mr. Satya Pal Jain, learned counsel for the petitioners, and Mr. Roshan Lal Sharma, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, Punjabi University, Patiala, respondent No. 1, certain information was considered necessary to be obtained for proper adjudication of the case. In order to enable the Punjabi University to place the same on record, an opportunity was given to Mr. Sharma to file a detailed affidavit with better particulars. This has accordingly been done and supplementary affidavit has been filed by the Registrar, Punjabi University, Patiala, on 15th December, 1986. There are two Government Colleges of Education for B.Ed. course in the State of Punjab (one at Patiala and the other at Faridkot) which are affiliated to the Punjabi University, Patiala. There are about seventy students in B.Ed. course in the Government College of Education at Faridkot whereas the strength of such students in the Government College of Education, Patiala, is one hundred and seventy-seven. Though the present writ petition has been filed only by the B.Ed. students of the College at Faridkot, but the revised syllabus is being taught to the students of both these Colleges since August, 1986. The theory examinations, according to the revised syllabus, are going to be held in April, 1987, and question papers for the same have already been set and have since been sent for printing. The syllabus has been revised to bring uniformity in the syllabus/courses in all the Universities in the State of Punjab. Only minor changes have been made while revising the old syllabus, which statement has been made on the authority of the communication of the Principal, Government College of Education, Patiala, to Prof. Sarwan Singh, Dean, College Development Council, Punjabi University, Patiala. Finally, according to the Registrar, the University would be put to harassment if it was made to revert to old courses, specially when the students have already gone ahead with the studies according to the revised syllabus.