JUDGMENT :-

Swatanter Kumar, J.

1. IA Nos.1-2 of 2012 are applications filed by the two students of Parshavanath College of Engineering run by Parshavanath Charitable Trust for permission to file special leave petition SLP (C) No............ of 2012 (CC No.15485 of 2012) against the judgment dated 22nd August, 2012 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Bombay in Writ Petition No.460 of 2011. The applications are allowed subject to just exceptions.

2. SLP (C) No.26086 of 2012 has been preferred by the appellant-Trust against the same judgment.

3. Leave granted in both the SLPs.

4. As the challenge in both these appeals is to one and the same judgment of the Bombay High Court, it will, thus, be appropriate for us to dispose of both these appeals by this common judgment.

FACTS :

5. The appellant, Parshvanath Charitable Trust, was formed as a minority community trust in the year 1993. One of its objects was to establish educational institutions. Consequently, it established the Parshavanath College, after obtaining approval of all the concerned authorities on 11th June, 1994 with the intake capacity of 140 students for academic year 1994-95. This college was running at the premises being Survey No.27 (part) at Kasarvadavali, Ghodbunder Road in the district of Thane. The annual approvals by the All India Council for Technical Education (for short, the ‘AICTE’) continued till the year 2008. On 29th April, 2008, the appellant sought a ‘No Objection Certificate’ from the University of Mumbai. It also applied for an ‘occupation certificate’ from the Municipal Corporation of Bombay for shifting the college to new premises located at a distance of barely 300 meters from the old site being Survey No. 12/1, 2, 4, 13/8, 9, 10A and 13/10B. In furtherance to this, the appellant had made an application dated 24th May, 2008 to the Regional Office of the AICTE seeking its permission to shift the college to the new premises and also submitted all the requisite documents. The appellant had also written to the Directorate of Technical Education for issuance of a No Objection Certificate for the said purpose.

6. It is not in dispute that in May, 2008, the college shifted its location to the new site. This exercise was undertaken by the college and the Trust without taking prior approval of the AICTE and without receiving “No Objection Certificate” from the University of Mumbai as well as the State Government. It is also evident from the record that no Occupation Certificate was received from the Municipal Corporation of Thane before shifting.

7. On or about 24th June, 2008, the AICTE appointed an Expert Committee to verify the infrastructure available at the new site and the Expert Committee visited the college on 28th June, 2008. It noted that No Objection Certificate of the affiliating University for change in the location had not been produced though they were informed that the same was in process. It also made certain observations with regard to the title of the land and the same, according to them, stood in the name of some other Trust which in turn had leased out the land to the appellant Trust. The Committee also noticed that all the laboratories and other infrastructure had been shifted to the new site. On 30th June, 2008, the AICTE granted an extension of approval to the Engineering College for the academic years 2008-2011 with an intake capacity of 280 students. Clause 3 of this approval letter reads as under :-

“3. That the institution shall operate only from the approved location, and that the institution shall not open any off campus study centres/extensive centres directly or in collaboration with any other institution/university organization for the purpose of imparting technical education without obtaining prior approval from the AICTE.”

8. As is obvious from a bare reading of the letter, the appellant- college was to run its courses from the campus which was approved. Thereafter vide letter dated 20th August, 2009, AICTE gra