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SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
BEFORE B.P. JEEVAN REDDY AND N. VENKATACHALA, JJ.
HOME SECRETARY, U.T. OF CHANDIGARH AND ANOTHER
Versus
DARSHJIT SINGH GREWAL AND OTHERS
Civil Appeal Nos. 545-49 of 1993 with Civil Appeal Nos. 3337-39 of 1993{From the Judgment and Order dated January 20, 1993 of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in C.W.P. Nos. 11966, 12050, 13228, 12628 and 14991 of 1992}
Decided on 21-7-1993
Advocates appeared:
Kapil Sibal, Senior Advocate (Ranjit Kumar, J.P. Verghese, M.P. Raju and L.J. Vadakara, Advocates, with him) for the Appellants;
G. Ramaswamy, Harish N. Salve and V. Sinha, Sudhir Walia, Rajiv K. Garg, Ashok K. Mahajan, Anil Mittal, Manoj Swarup, J.K. Das, N.D. Garg and Shivi Sharma, Advocates, with them) for the Respondents,
Gobinda Mukhoty, Senior Advocate (J.K. Das, A.S. Sohal and Rajiv Sharma, Advocates, with him) for the Intervenor.
Leave granted in Special Leave Petition – Whether constituent or affiliated, in the State of Punjab are made on the basis of a Joint Entrance Test (JET) – Affiliated colleges, which are run by private managements were, however, permitted hitherto to fill up a certain number of seats, designated as management quota, on their own – For admission in the management quota, a student was required to obtain a certain minimum number of marks in the joint entrance examination – But in practice a number of students obtaining less than the minimum were also being admitted - on various considerations – Having obtained admission in management quota in affiliated colleges, some of them situated away from Chandigarh, the effort of many of the students was always to have themselves transferred to colleges located centrally like the Chandigarh Engineering College, a constituent college of Punjab University – These appeals relate to a few such transfers –Held, Applicability of rule of promissory estoppel - or for that matter any other similar rule - vis-a-vis the ultra vires acts of public officials and statutory corporations has been a vexed subject in law, both in this country as well as in England and U.S.A.{See in this connection Wades Administrative Law - (Sixth Edn.) and Corpus Juris Secundum and Corpus Juris Secundum – It is however not necessary, to go into it for the purposes of this case, inasmuch as there is no room for invoking the rule of promissory estoppel in these cases – As pointed out hereinbefore, the respondents had not changed their position basing upon the representation - Whether the representation consisted of the earlier consent of the Principal or the approval by University and Chandigarh Administration – Further, the said Rule cannot, in any event, be invoked to perpetuate the violation of a provision of law, that too a provision couched in emphatic terms (leaving no discretion in the authority) and based upon sound public policy i.e., a mandatory provision – Appeals are accordingly allowed.
JUDGMENT
B.P. JEEVAN REDDY, J.—Leave granted in Special Leave Petition (Civil) Nos. 3073-75 of 1993.
2. Admission to engineering colleges, whether constituent or affiliated, in the State of Punjab are made on the basis of a Joint Entrance Test (JET). The affiliated colleges, which are run by private managements were, however, permitted hitherto to fill up a certain number of seats, designated as management quota, on their own. For admission in the management quota, a student was required to obtain a certain minimum number of marks in the joint entrance examination. But in practice a number of students obtaining less than the minimum were also being admitted - on various considerations. Having obtained admission in management quota in affiliated colleges, some of them situated away from Chandigarh, the effort of many of the students was always to have themselves transferred to colleges located centrally like the Chandigarh Engineering College, a constituent college of Punjab University. These appeals relate to a few such transfers.
3. The five appeals before us arise from five writ petitions filed in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. The particulars of the writ petitioners (RR 1 to 5) are:
_______________________________________________________________
No. of WP in the High Court
No. of CA in this Court
Name of the candidate
Marks obtained by him in JET
Marks obtained by the last candidate in the relevant faculty in the Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh
_______________________________________________________________
1
2
3
4
5
_______________________________________________________________
11096
of
-
Darshjit
109.25
240.50
1992
Singh (R-1)
12050
of
-
Sunit Kapur
28
228
1992
(R-2)
13228
of
-
Anil Kr.
152.75
217.25
1992
Batra (R-3)
12628
of
-
Subhadra
118.5
183.75
1992
Yadav (R-4)
14991
of
-
Rohit Tangri
173.25
202.25
1992
(R-5)
_______________________________________________________________
4. With the marks obtained by them, RR 1 to 4 could not be admitted in any engineering college in the State, on merit. Only respondent 5 could get admission on the basis of his merit, but in the Bhatinda Engineering College, affiliated to the Punjabi University (as distinct from Punjab University). Respondents 1 to 4 sought for and obtained admission in Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana, in the management quota. This college is affiliated to Punjab University.
5. All the five respondents applied for transfer to Chandigarh Engineering College. It is evident that while in the case of respondents 1 to 4 the transfer was an intra-university transfer, in the case of fifth respondent, it was inter-university transfer. All of them applied for transfer on the ground of security. They pleaded that there were threats to their life at the place they were studying and, that in the interest of their safety, they must be transferred to Chandigarh Engineering College.
6. Punjab University is governed by the Punjab University Act, 1947. Sub-section (1) of Section 20 declares that the "executive government of the university shall be vested in the Syndicate", while sub-section (5) of Section 20 empowers the Syndicate to "make such rules, not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act and Regulations, as they may deem necessary for carrying on executive government of the university as specified in sub-section (1)".
7. The rules framed by the Syndicate under Section 20(5) of the Act are found printed in Volume III of the Punjab University Calendar. Chapter 14 deals with "migration of students". The chapter is divided into several sub-chapters. Sub-chapter (a) prescribes the "Rules regarding migration from the affiliated college to another". Rule 1.1.3 says "migration of students shall not be allowed without any valid reasons". Rule 1.2 says "no student who has joined one college shall be admitted to another college during the same course unless - (/) the Principals of the colleges concerned agree and the application is forwarded to the Registrar for sanction, accompanied by a fe
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