THAKUR PRE-EXAMINATION COACHING-CUMTRAINING INSTITUTE (SOCIETY) NEHARN PUKHAR AND ANOTHER Vs. STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH AND ANOTHER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of this writ petition, the petitioners have prayed for the following reliefs:

(2.) Brief facts necessary for the adjudication of the present case are that Department of Higher Education, Government of Himachal Pradesh issued Notification dated 23rd August, 2010, vide which it notified norms and guidelines for the grant of "No Objection Certificate" to Societies/Trusts/Institutions, who intended to start courses in the State of Himachal Pradesh in private sector, i.e. (i) Graduate Courses in Arts, Science, Media/Journalism, Commerce, Sanskrit, Law including BBA, BCA and other courses affiliated to H.P. University and recognized by U.G.C. (ii) Postgraduate Courses in Arts, Science, Media/Journalism, Commerce, Sanskrit, Law, Business Administration including PGDCA and other courses affiliated to H.P. University and recognized by U.G.C. The case of the petitioners is that as the said society was interested in starting Post graduation courses in the subjects of Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, Math and M.Com, it applied to the Directorate of Higher Education, Government of Himachal Pradesh vide communication dated 19.11.2015 for the issuance of "No Objection Certificate" in consonance with the norms/guidelines laid down by the Government of Himachal Pradesh in this regard vide Notification dated 23rd August, 2010. As per the petitioners, it was having infrastructure as well as facilities which were contemplated under the norms issued by the respondent/State dated 23rd August, 2010 and accordingly, it applied to the Directorate of Higher Education vide communication dated 19.11.2015 for inspection of college for the purpose of issuance of "No Objection Certificate". It is further the case of the petitioners that the college of the petitioners was inspected by Director of Higher Education on 24.06.2016 and in the inspection so carried out, it was found that the College of the petitionerSociety was fulfilling all the norms, however, when despite this "No Objection Certificate" was not issued in favour of the College of the petitioner-Society, it made a request in this regard to the respondent- State vide communication dated 06.07.2016. As per the petitioners, before this vide communication dated 08.06.2016, they also applied to respondent No. 2-University for inspection of their College and for the issuance of affiliation to run post graduate courses for the session 2016- 2017 after depositing the requisite fee etc. in this regard. As per the petitioners, when they visited the office of Director, Higher Education on 15.07.2016, the petitioners were informed by the Director that "No Objection Certificate" was not being issued in favour of the petitionerSociety as the institute in issue had not purchased the books. Pursuant to this, an undertaking was given by the petitioner-Society on the asking of the respondent-State that institute shall purchase books amounting to Rs. 50,000/- per course. Petitioners have also stated that more books were purchased on 16.07.2016 in order to meet out the requirements of the responents. According to the petitioners, in action on the part of the respondents in the issuance of "No Objection Certificate" despite the fact that the Committee had approved the institute for grant of "No Objection Certificate" was highly arbitrary. It is further the case of the petitioners that despite the fact that file of the petitioner-Society, complete in all respects, with the recommendations for grant of "No Objection Certificate" by the inspection committee was received by the Secretary on 22.07.2016, their case was not being considered for the issuance of "No Objection Certificate" purportedly on the ground that the State was contemplating to formulate new norms for the purpose of issuance of "No Objection Certificate" without appreciating that the case of the petitioners could not be assessed on the basis of new norms which had not yet come into force and their case had to be assessed on the basis of the norms which were existing at the time when the petitioners applied for the grant of "No Objection Certificate". It is further the case of the petitioners that new norms which were introduced by the respondent-State w.e.f. 11.08.2016, i.e. during pendency of the present petition for grant of "No Objection Certificate" could not be made basis for adjudging/deciding the application so filed by the petitioner-Society for grant of "No Objection Certificate" as decision on the application of the petitioner-Society has to be taken on the basis of the norms which were in force as on the date when the application was filed by the petitioner-Society. It is further the case of the petitioners that they have made huge investments by taking loan from the nationalized bank on the holding out of the respondent/State that petitioners case was being considered as was evident from the acts of the respondent/State and the respondent/State was now estopped from denying the "No Objection Certificate" to the petitioners on the ground that their case has to be assessed as per the new norms which have come into force w.e.f. 11.08.2016. Accordingly, on these grounds, the petitioners have prayed that directions be issued to the respondents to issue "No Objection Certificate" in their favour on the basis of the norms which were existing at the time when they applied for "No Objection Certificate" to run post graduate courses, with further direction to respondent No. 2 to grant affiliation to petitioners to start post graduation courses in the subjects of Physics, Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, Math and M.Com for the academic Session 2016-17.

(3.) In its reply filed to the petition, respondent/State took the stand that Department of Higher Education had issued norms/guidelines for the grant of "No Objection Certificate" to various Societies/Trusts/Institutions for the purpose of starting courses in the State of Himachal Pradesh on 18.08.2008, which were further revised on 23.08.2010. As per State, Director of Higher Education, Himachal Pradesh on 22.12.2015 was asked to revise the said norms, which were submitted on 05.02.2016 and subsequently, the revised norms were sent for approval on 27.04.2016 and the competent authority approved the same resulting in issuance of Notification dated 11.08.2016 and keeping in view the fact that now the grant of "No Objection Certificates" was governed by Notification dated 11.08.2016 and there were other cases also of 13 other private colleges in addition to that of the petitioners, which were under consideration, the said cases were now to be considered/finalized by the State as per new norms notified on 11.08.2016. It was further stated in its reply by the respondent/State that the petitioner-College will be given "No Objection Certificate" for running post graduation courses if it fulfills the norms notified on 11.08.2016. Incidentally, in the preliminary submissions made by the respondent/State, it has been stated that the petitioner-College submitted its case for issuance of "No Objection Certificate" for the purpose of running post graduation courses on 27.11.2015 in the Directorate of Higher Education and after removing the shortcomings pointed out in the said proposal, the petitioner-College submitted revised proposals vide letter dated 10.02.2016 and inspection of the College was carried out on 24.06.2016. It was further admitted in the reply that the petitioner-College had removed the shortcomings as were pointed out in the inspection carried out on 20.07.2016 and case for issuance of "No Objection Certificate" was received by the respondent/State on 22.07.2016 from the Directorate of Higher Education. However, as the respondent/State had now finalized the new norms on 11.08.2016, the cases were accordingly returned to the Directorate of Higher Education for reconsideration of the said cases. Thus, in a nut-shell according to the respondent/State, despite the fact that the case of the petitioner-College was duly received for the purpose of grant of "No Objection Certificate" as on 22.07.2016, however, the same was returned back to the Directorate of Higher Education for reconsideration in lieu of the fact that new norms had come into force on 11.08.2016.