IMPORTANT POINT
Where Teacher Training Institutes came to be derecognised after public examination and consequently Institute became unrecognised, students were held to be entitled to declaration of results but not entitled to get mark sheets and diplomas/certificates.

JUDGMENT

Shivaraj V. Patil, J.-Since these petitions raise common questions based on similar set of facts they are being disposed of by this common judgment.

2. The petitioners filed their respective writ petitions against the respondents praying for the publication of their results and to issue diploma in teachers training, contending that on successful completion of the higher secondary they underwent secondary grade teachers training in different training institutes between the period 1989 of 1991; they had taken public examination in May, 1992 but their results were not published and certificates were not awarded. The institutes in which they had undergone training course had recognition but the same was withdrawn subsequently. The learned single Judge dismissed the writ petitions following the judgment of the Division Bench of the High Court in P.M. Joseph v. The State of Tamil Nadu & Ors.1 Writ Petition No. 9494 of 1992). Writ appeals filed against the order of learned single Judge were also dismissed affirming the view taken by the learned single Judge stating that the petitioners were only entitled to get the results declared and were not entitled to get mark sheets or diplomas/certificates as the institutes in which they had undergone training were de-recognized. Hence these petitions are brought before us in this Court.

3. The learned counsel for the petitioners urged :-

1. The petitioners having undergone the training course in the institutions, which had recognition on the date of public examination, could not be deprived of their right to obtain mark sheets and diplomas/certificates merely on the ground that those institutes were de-recognized by virtue of a decision rendered by the High Court subsequent to the public examination.

2. The treatment of the respondents was unfair and discriminatory in the case of the petitioners inasmuch as to few others similarly placed the respondents have given diplomas/certificates although with an endorsement that they have undergone training in unrecognized institutes.

4. The learned counsel for the respondents made submissions supporting the orders impugned in these petitions.

5. In order to appreciate the rival contentions we consider it useful to refer to the decision in P.M. Joseph s case (supra). In the said judgment the Division Bench of the High Court in para 11 has stated thus :-

"11. We have no doubt that orders or recognition were granted only on extraneous considerations as alleged by the petitioner. We have already referred to the express allegation in paragraph 20 of the petitioner s affidavit that a few officials working in the Secretariat and the Director of School Education issued the orders of recognition as dictated by the Hon ble Minister for Education. We doubt, the Minister is not a party to this writ petition and we may not be able to investigate the said allegation as against him. But, the Secretary to Government is representing the State as first respondent and the Director of School education is the second respondent. They have not chosen to deny the said allegations in their counter affidavits. The facts referred to by us above as called out from Annexures V and VI filed by the Government at our instance, clearly show that the orders of recognition were passed only on a specific direction from a person in the higher echelons at the ministerial level. Otherwise, the officials, who are before us, would not have been bold enough to pass such orders in utter violation of the provisions of G.O.Ms. Nos. 535 and 536 dated 17.5.1989 as well as the rules which were in force prior to the passing of the said G.O.s. Thus, the Government, to say the least, played havoc in the matter of Teacher Training Education and ruined the same. The direct impact would necessarily be on the Secondary Grade Education, as the holders of the Diploma in Teachers Training Education are the persons who are to handle the classes I to VIII in Secondary Gra