MAHANT GURBANTA DASS MEMORIAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION Vs. DIRECTOR, EDUCATION DEPT (COLLEGE), PUNJAB AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present petition is filed by Mahant Gurbanta Dass Memorial College of Education with twin prayers of seeking a direction to the respondents to issue No Objection Certificate (NOC) for running the B.Ed. course from Session 2015-16 and to compensate it for the loss of two years caused due to non-issuance of NOC.

(2.) In brief, the petitioner has averred that it had got the CLU for its 2 acres of land, sanctioned for education purposes on 25.07.2005, under the name and style of M/s Sant. Bhumi Foundation (Regd.) and thereafter , applied for NOC for opening of the new B.Ed. college. The petitioner got the Letter of Intent from the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) on 23.04.2015, prior to grant of recognition/permission for B.Ed. course under Clause 7(13) of the NCTE (Recognition Norms and Procedure) regulation, 2014 (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations") and submitted FDRs of Rs. 8 lac. It is further submitted that all the documents and Demand Draft of Rs. 2,55,000/- were submitted to the Dean of Colleges, Punjabi University, Patiala (respondent no.4 herein) for starting the B.Ed. programme for the year 2015-16 on 30.04.2015 but due to non-issuance of NOC by respondents no.1 and 2, the petitioner could not start the academic session in 2015-2016. It is alleged that the petitioner had applied for NOC to start the B.Ed. programme on 08.05.2015 under Clause 1(13) of the Regulations while referring the LOI issued by the NCTE dated 23.04.2015 but it has not been granted till date.

(3.) The petitioner has made reference of the correspondences between the petitioner, NCTE and the Municipal Corporation, Bathinda from time to time and has ultimately referred to a letter dated 19.05.2016 of the Deputy Director (Colleges), addressed to the Principal Secretary, Government of Punjab, Higher Education Department, in which it has been mentioned that the case of the petitioner has been received in his office on 08.05.2015 and has diarized it in the branch on 11.05.2015. It is further mentioned that in the meeting dated 28.05.2015, held by the Minister of Education, though it had been asked to consider the case for the issuance of NOC to 80 colleges for opening the B.Ed. college but due to an error of the previous dealing assistant, by writing the date 04.06.2015 of diarizing this case, the issue as to whether inspection has to be carried out or not requires guidance was not taken up. It is further averred therein that the approval has already been accorded by the NCTE on 204.2015 and made a reference to various other documents which were attached with the said letter and in the end, approval was sought for carrying out the inspection of the petitioner-college. Since nothing was heard thereafter, therefore, the present petition has been filed.