Baba Balak Nath College of Education and welfare Society vs State of H.P. and Others

Deepak Gupta, J.—The Petitioner, by means of this petition, has prayed for the grant of following amongst Ors. reliefs:

To quash the letter dated 5th August, 2009(Annexure P-8) written by Respondent No. 1.

To direct Respondent No. 3 to grant the recognition to the Petitioner institution as per Regulations.

The Petitioner is a Society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and has been set up to run colleges. According to the Petitioner, it intended to run B. Ed course under the name and style of Baba Balak Nath College of Education. The Petitioner, therefore, submitted its application along with complete proposal for opening the B. Ed course to the National Council for Teacher Education. The case of the Petitioner was considered. Objections were raised from time to time, but on 5th August, 2009 a communication was issued to the Petitioner that the State Government has already expressed its views that no further B. Ed courses are required within the State due to existence of a large number of private B. Ed colleges and no new colleges are required to be opened in Kangra District. Hence, the National Council for Teacher Education, in view of the stand taken by the State rejected the application filed by the Petitioner for starting the B. Ed Educational Institution.

Ms. Sunita Thakur, Learned Counsel for the Petitioner, relies upon the judgment of the Apex Court in Al-Karim Educational Trust and another Vs. State of Bihar and others, and submits that since the Petitioner''s College has been inspected time and again and the Petitioner has virtually set up the College it should be granted affiliation and permission to run the B. Ed course.

It would be pertinent to mention that during the course of the proceedings, the Petitioner has filed a supplementary affidavit and brought to the notice of this Court the fact that the three institutions had been given recognition to run B. Ed courses in District Kangra. Thereafter, the Respondent No. 3 was directed to state under which and what circumstances these colleges were granted recognition. On 27.6.2011, the record of the colleges was produced and this Court ordered as follows:

That record has been produced with regard to three colleges, i.e. A One College of Education Raja-Ka-Bag (Nurpur), District Kangra, Awasthi Memorial College of Education, Shamnagar, Dharamshala, District Kangra and Neelam College of Education Jimjima, Jogindernagar, District Mandi.

The record of A One College shows that the application for grant of opening the college is filed on 25.6.2007 and permission granted on 13.12.2007 prior to the letter dated 13.8.2008 issued by the State Government. As far as Awasthi Memorial College of Education, Shamnagar, Dharamshala, District Kangra, is concerned, as per the record the case was considered in a meeting prior to 13.8.2008 on the application for grant to run the educational institute filed on 27.7.2007 but the permission was granted on 24.9.2008 after the first letter Annexure R-1 dated 13.8.2008 is issued by the State Government. As far as Neelam College of Education Jimjima, Jogindernagar, District Mandi is concerned, the application was filed on 23.10.2008 and permission has been granted on 26.5.20210. Records relating to Lakshya and Minerva Colleges have not been produced. This record be produced on the next date of hearing alongwith the record of meetings. The communication sent by the Government with regard to their recommendations for opening B. Ed Colleges in the State of Himachal Pradesh or in any of the district of Himachal Pradesh shall also be produced on the next date.

The Principal Secretary (Education) has filed counter affidavit and has clearly reiterated that as per the State there is no need to open any Ors. B. Ed colleges since already there are a large number of colleges. According to the State, there is no requirement for starting any new B. Ed college. It may be true, as held by this Court in CWP No. 1046 of 2007 dated 9.8.2007, that there is no necessity of obtaining No Objection Certificate from the State before granting permission to open a B. Ed College, but the NCTE has to look into all these matters independently while deciding whether the college should be granted the affiliation or not. The NCTE in its wisdom has decided not to grant affiliation on the ground that no new college should be opened in any District. In my view, this decision of the NCTE cannot be said to be arbitrary or capricious. The petition is, therefore, dismissed.

However, Respondent No. 3 is directed to ensure that in all cases it follows a uniform policy and it cannot pick and choose and permit some colleges to open and reject the cases of some applicants. It should either follow the instructions of the State and reject all applications or consider each case on its own merits. The petition is disposed of in the aforesaid terms. No costs.