The court affirmed that decisions by the State regarding educational institutions must be justified, not arbitrary, ensuring the criteria for granting permissions are relevant and applied consistently.

JUDGMENT :

Jitendra Jain, J.

1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally by consent of the parties.

2. This matter relating to setting up of new college arises from Taluka-Haveli, Pune. Pune is known as “Oxford of East” since decades after decades, it has attracted students not only from all over our country but also from other countries. This has resulted into Pune being a hub of educational institutes. With passage of time and due to growth of the city, there has been huge growth and competition in setting up colleges not only in city of Pune but also around its periphery. Competition as we all know also leads to litigation since every aspirant wants to have its space in such growth and development. This petition is one of such litigation. Although “education” is a pious in our culture but with change in time it has taken a different colour and has become unaffordable. It is the State’s Constitutional responsibility to ensure quality education reaches all the citizens of this country to achieve the growth and development of humanity.

3. The issue raised in both the petitions is identical and, therefore, they are being decided by this common order. However, we would be discussing facts of the Petitioner in Writ Petition No.6256 of 2022.

4. By this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the Petitioner has challenged Government Resolution (GR) dated 20th April 2022 issued by the Respondent Nos.1 to 3, being the State of Maharashtra and the Education Department of the State, whereby Letter of Intent to start new college was granted to Respondent Nos.6 to 8 and the Petitioner’s proposal for grant of Letter of Intent to start new college at Taluka Haveli, Pune was refused vide email dated 4th March 2022.

5. This is the second inning by the Petitioner before this Court seeking redressal of its aforesaid grievance and, therefore, it is necessary to narrate the facts.

Narrative of events:-

(i) Respondent No.4 – University prepared a plan for 5 years namely 2018-2019 to 2022-2023 for increasing the number of colleges in the stream of Arts, Commerce and Science in the Districts of Pune, Ahmednagar and Nashik.

(ii) Pursuant to the above, Respondent Nos.1 to 3 issued a Government Resolution on 15th September 2017 seeking application for setting up new colleges. The said Government Resolution lays down in detail the guidelines for the procedure to be followed for setting up new colleges. As per the said Government Resolution, Respondent No.4 – University would scrutinize the application received for starting new college and conduct site visits and thereafter submit its report to the Vice Chancellor. The said report of Respondent No.4-University along with the list of eligible applicants would then be submitted with its recommendation to Respondent Nos.1 to 3 and thereafter Respondent Nos.1 to 3 would, after scrutinizing the documents issue Letter of Intent for the purpose of setting up a new college.

(iii) The Petitioner as averred in the petition being a charitable trust involved in the educational training field since last 11 years, submitted its proposal on 15th December 2017 to Respond