JUDGMENT :

KRISHNA MURARI, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. These appeals arises out of the Judgment and Order dated 03.11.2020 passed by the Kerala High Court in Writ Appeal Nos. 1401 and 1413 of 2020, wherein the Division Bench of the said High Court modified the directions of the learned Single Judge to the extent of consideration for establishment of Medical College by the appellant for the Academic Year 2021-2022.

3. The issue arising for consideration before us is whether Essentiality Certificate (hereinafter referred to as ‘EC’) and Consent of Affiliation (hereinafter referred to as ‘CoA’) should be granted for the year 2020-2021 to the appellant. The other issues which need to be addressed are:-

(i) Whether grant of Essentiality Certificate by the State Government is only a Ministerial Act?

(ii) Whether Essentiality Certificate, once issued, can be withdrawn?

4. Facts in brief:

The appellant is a trust set up with the object of promoting education in Health and Medicine. To start a Medical College, the appellant claims to have set up a 300 bedded hospital in Walayar, Palakkad District in 2006. According to the case set up by the appellant, the requisite infrastructure was put in place and it has been trying to establish a Medical College from the year 2006 onwards but due to the arbitrary and discriminatory action of the State Government and the Kerala University of Health Sciences by denying the EC and CoA, it has miserably failed in its attempt. It has been asserted in the pleading that in presenti, the appellant’s hospital has 76 doctors, 380 nurses and paramedical staff, 4 major operation theatres, 2 minor operation theatres, along with all other facilities and infrastructure required to run a Medical College.

The EC was granted for the first time to the appellant on 24.01.2004 for 100 seats. However, since the same was not in the prescribed format, therefore, Medical Council of India (hereinafter referred to as ‘MCI’) refused to accept the application of the appellant. The EC was again issued to the appellant on 18.06.2009 for 100 seats. Since the same was beyond the prescribed time limit, hence it was again rejected by the MCI. The appellant was again issued an EC dated 12.01.2011. However, the Kerala University of Health and Allied Science (hereinafter referred to as ‘KUHS’) granted CoA belatedly much after the time schedule as such the college could not be established. It may be pertinent to point out that the Essentiality Certificate dated 12.01.2011 was valid only for the Academic Year 2011-2012 and 2012-2013. It is an admitted fact that the appellant failed to establish the college during the Academic Year 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 for which the EC was valid. On 10.06.2014, the State Government issued a renewed EC which contained a clerical error which was corrected belatedly on 11.12.2015 much after the date for submission of the application to the Central Government for establishment of Medical College. As a consequence, the MCI returned/ rejected the application for the Academic Year 2014-2015. Application made by the appellant for establishment of the Medical College for the year 2015-2016 was returned by the Government of India vide letter dated 17.10.2014, on the ground that CoA submitted along with the proposal was not valid for the Academic Year 2015-2016 leaving it open to the appellant to submit a fresh application for the Academic Year 2016-2017. It may be pertinent to note at this stage that the appellant had preferred Writ Petition No. 29462 of 2014 before the High Court, wherein an interim order dated 22.11.2014 was passed directing the MCI to consider the application provisionally and further direction was issued to KUHS to conduct inspection for grant of fresh CoA. However, the fresh CoA could not be granted and with the elapse of time the petition was rendered infructuous. The appellant was granted prov