Ratnadeep Ayurved Medical College & Anr. vs The State Of Maharashtra & Ors.

(PER NITIN B. SURYAWANSHI, J.):

Rule. Rule is made returnable forthwith. Heard finally with the consent of the learned Advocates for the parties.

By this Petition, the Petitioners have putforth following prayers:

The Petitioner No.2 Trust is engaged in the field of higher and medical education. Petitioners claim that, Petitioner No.2 has established various professional institutes, including Ayurved, Homeopathy, Nursing and Pharmacy colleges, after obtaining requisite permissions, Essentiality Certificates, No Objection Certificates and other statutory approvals from the Competent Authorities. 4. Brief facts, leading to this petition are as follows:

Petitioner No.2 runs Petitioner No.1 College after obtaining Essentiality Certificate issued by the Government of Maharashtra, Consent of Affiliation granted by Respondent No. 2-University and permissions granted by the Competent Central Authorities from time to time.

Petitioner No.2 was issued Essentiality Certificate to run Petitioner No.1 College by the State Government on 7^th June, 2021. Permission was granted on 14^th February, 2023 for establishment of College for the academic year 2022-23. Respondent No.2 University granted affiliation on 20^th February, 2023.

Respondent No.2 University, by order dated 26^th April, 2024, permanently withdrew the affiliation of the Petitioner No.1 College under section 73 of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences Act, 1998. The students admitted to the Petitioner No.1 College were transferred to other affiliated colleges. Consequently, the Respondent No. 4- Medical Assessment and Rating Board for Indian System of Medicine constituted under the National Commission of Indian System of Medicine Act, 2020 withdrew the permission granted to Petitioner No.1 College. The Petitioners could not succeed in the Appeals filed by them challenging the said orders.

The Petitioners challenged disaffiliation of Homeopathy, Ayurved and Nursing Colleges, by filing Writ Petition Nos. 4626 of 2024, 4642 of 2024 and 4764 of 2024, respectively. All these petitions were dismissed on merits by common judgment dated 30^th January, 2025. The said decision was challenged by the Petitioners by filing SLP. The Apex Court, vide order dated 3^rd November, 2025 declined to interfere in the judgment of the High Court and dismissed the SLP by observing that “However, this order of dismissal shall not preclude the Management to apply for permission afresh, upon compliance with all the formalities.”

Pursuant to the order of the Apex Court, the Petitioners submitted representation dated 20^th November, 2025, before Respondent No.2 University, seeking continuation of the affiliation / consent of affiliation in respect of Ayurved College for the academic year 2026-27. The said representation was considered by Respondent No.2 University on the same day and a decision was taken to seek clarification from the State Government. The University, therefore, addressed communications dated 2^nd December, 2025, 5^th December, 2025 and 17^th December, 2025 to Respondent No.1 – Medical Education and Drugs Department, seeking clarification about continued validity and legal effect of the Essentiality Certificate and the Government permission granted to the Petitioners’ College.

On 8^th January, 2026, Respondent No.1 clarified that the Essentiality Certificate and the Government permission granted in favour of the Petitioners’ Ayurved College continued to remain valid and it was never withdrawn or cancelled. The Government, therefore, asked Respondent No.2 University to consider the representation of the Petitioners.

Respondent No.2 University, thereafter constituted a local inquiry committee, which visited the Petitioner’s College on 29^th January, 2026 and carried out inspection of the infrastructure, teaching facilities, attached hospital, equipments and other statutory requirements.

It is the grievance of the Petitioners that in spite of clarification given by the Government and the inspection of the Petitioners’ College having been carried out, Respondent No.2 University proceeded to treat the Petitioners’ application as a fresh proposal instead of processing it as a restoration proposal. Respondent No.2 University, therefore, demanded payment of proposal fees applicable to the establishment of a new institution, though the Petitioners’ proposal arises from the continued validity of the existing Essentiality Certificate and the liberty granted by the Hon’ble Apex Court.

The Petitioners contend that the demand of the payment of fees applicable to fresh proposal, is contrary to Ordinance No.1 of 2017 read with Fee Notification No.42 of 2017, particularly the provision governing restoration of proposals, where the Government confirms or validates an existing Essentiality Certificate. In these facts, the Petitioners have approached this Court.

Respondent No.2 University has filed affidavit in reply denying the contentions raised by the Petitioners. It is stated that the Petition proceeds on fundamentally erroneous premise that the Petitioners are entitled to restoration or continuation of earlier affiliation merely because Essentiality Certificate earlier issued by the State Government continues to remain valid. The said contention is legally and factually untenable.

It is stated that the University had received complaints about serious deficiencies pertaining to the College, land, building and other matters and also received complaints from the students and parents in respect of charging of excess fees and sexual harassment of girl students by the President of the Petitioner institution. Pursuant to the same, inspections and inquiries were conducted and it was revealed that the management was running 3 health science colleges affiliated to MUHS, including Petitioner No.1, in the same campus / building along with other para medical courses / colleges i.e. two pharmacy courses, and one Auxiliary Nursing Midwifery (ANM) and General Nursing Midwifery (GNM) course colleges. The Petitioners had failed to comply with the conditions of the affiliation, specified under section 65 of the MUHS Act, 1998. The President of the Institution was behind the bars on the allegations of sexual harassment of the girl students for quite some months. He was subsequently released under the orders of the Hon’ble Supreme Court. Therefore, the University, after following due procedure under section 73 of the MUHS Act, permanently disaffiliated the concerned colleges with effect from the academic year 2024-25.

It is further stated that neither the Hon’ble Supreme Court did restore earlier affiliation of the Petitioner College nor has it set aside the permanent disaffiliation and the opportunity is granted expressly to apply afresh, upon compliance of all the formalities. The Government of India has denied permission to the Homeopathy College of the Petitioner Institution for the academic year 2023-24, as there were serious discrepancies.

It is also stated that merely because the Government has not cancelled the Essentiality Certificate, the same cannot be equated with the extension of the stipulated validity period. The said certificate prescribes validity of 3 years, which is already expired.

It is also submitted that continued validity of Essentiality Certificate does not automatically restore or revive the affiliation, which has already been permanently withdrawn. The Essentiality Certificate and Affiliation / Consent of Affiliation operate in separate statutory fields.

After receipt of the proposal of the Petitioner dated 20^th November, 2025, as per the due procedure, local inspection committee inspected the site of the proposed Ayurved College on 29^th January, 2026 and recommended the proposal for intake capacity of 100 seats. The Petitioners thereafter submitted necessary documents, along with inspection report and separate drawings concerning the land and building, particularly since the proposed Homeopathy College was situated adjacent to the proposed Ayurved College. The Technical Expert Committee has carried out inspection / review on 15^th May, 2026 and submitted its report to the University stating that the proposed Ayurved College met the relevant requirements. Consequently, the University issued consent of affiliation dated 25^th May, 2026 to the Petitioners for establishment of a new Ayurved College, namely ‘Ratnadeep Ayurved Medical College, Ratnapur, Taluka-Jamkhed, District – Ahilyanagar’.

The University has categorically denied the contention of the Petitioners of seeking consent of affiliation by way of restoration of earlier affiliation, stating that the college has been permanently disaffiliated from academic year 2024-25, after following due process of law. The continuation of the Essentiality Certificate by the State Government concerns the essentiality / need of the health science college in the proposed area. Its validity does not confirm or exempt compliance with other mandatory statutory requirements.

On the basis of consent of affiliation issued by the University, the Petitioners are required to obtain necessary letter of permission from the National Commission for Indian System fo Medicine. After obtaining the said letter of permission, further statutory steps are required to be taken in accordance with the applicable procedure.

Respondent No.4 – Medical Assessment and Rating Board, by filing affidavit in reply has narrated the earlier short history and it is contended that consent of affiliation has been issued afresh to start new Ayurved College and it is not in continuation of the earlier consent of affiliation. The last date of submission of application for the academic year 2026-27 was 18^th August, 2025, however the College did not file any application / scheme for academic year 2026-27 till 18^th August, 2025. The request of the College to open Part-I visitation proforma cannot be considered, as the college has already been disaffiliated by the University and letter of permission issued to the Petitioner College has already been withdrawn by Respondent No.4. The Petitioners may submit application for the academic year 2027-28 till 10^th September, 2026.

Heard learned Senior Advocate for the Petitioners and learned Advocates for the Respondents at length. Perused the record.

A short point, which falls for consideration is that,

For considering the case of the Petitioners, it is necessary to consider as to why the University has passed an order of disaffiliation of the Petitioner College.

It is the matter of record and as observed by this Court in Writ Petition No. 4626 of 2025 and connected matters that, the Petitioners were running all the three courses i.e. Ayurved, Homeopathy and Nursing in the same property, admeasuring 6 Acre 84 Guntha, when as per the norms, Ayurved College requires minimum 5 Acres, Homeopathy College requires minimum 4 Acres and for Nursing college the requirement is of 2 Acre. The proposals for starting these colleges were moved in different areas, by showing the same property. No dedicated hospitals, required for all the three courses were available. No permanent name plates / signages were found. Departments were being used interchangeably and taking into account inter alia several other shortcomings, as a cumulative effect, the recommendations of de-affiliation were forwarded by the Academic Council and were accepted by the Vice Chancellor. Considering these facts, the Writ Petitions filed by the Petitioners were dismissed by this Court. The Civil Applications seeking review of the orders passed by this Court are also dismissed on merits by this Court, by order dated 7^th April, 2025.

This order was challenged by the Petitioners before the Apex Court and following order is passed on 3^rd November, 2025

Taking into consideration aforestated facts, the Petitioners cannot now claim that since their Essentiality permission is continued, they are entitled to claim restoration of their earlier college. In view of the serious shortcomings, owing to which the University has passed the order of disaffiliation of the Petitioners College, the approach of the University that the Petitioner has to apply afresh for affiliation of new college is justified. Merely because the State Government has continued the Essentiality Certificate does not mean that the Petitioners are entitled to claim restoration of their earlier colleges, particularly in view of the serious shortcomings and deficiencies, which has resulted into disaffiliation of the Petitioners’ College by the University is all the more reason that the Petitioners have to apply afresh for affiliation of a new college.

Interpretation of the Petitioners that the Petitioners are entitled to apply afresh for restoration of their affiliation, as the Apex Court has permitted it to apply afresh after removing the deficiencies, cannot be accepted in the present case.

It is pertinent to note that the Apex Court has not interfered with the disaffiliation order passed by Respondent No.2 University. In this view of the matter also the argument of the Petitioners that the Petitioners are entitled to seek restoration of its proposal of already existing Ayurved College, is misconceived and the same is based on misinterpretation of the order of the Apex Court, by the Petitioners.

There appears substance in the contention of the University that the validity period of the Essentiality Certificate issued in favour of the Petitioners was 3 years and the same is already expired. Since the affiliation of the Petitioners College is permanently withdrawn, the Petitioners are expected to submit a fresh proposal for affiliation of a new college and cannot claim restoration of their earlier affiliation, since disaffiliation order is not interfered with by the Apex Court.

Thus, the point which fell for consideration will have to be answered in the negative. The Petitioners cannot claim restoration of the affiliation on the basis of the liberty granted to them by the Apex Court and the Petitioners will have to apply afresh for affiliation of new college.

For the aforestated reasons, we find no merit in the Petition. The Writ Petition is, therefore, dismissed. Rule stands discharged.