IMPORTANT POINT
An educational institution must obtain clear affiliation from the relevant university before admitting students, as per the provisions of the applicable acts and regulations governing admissions.

JUDGMENT/ORDER

1. Heard.

2. The petitioner no.1-Society which is registered under the Maharashtra Public Trusts Act, 1950 as well as the Societies Registration Act, 1860 that runs the petitioner no.2-Institute of Pharmacy seeks a direction to be issued to the respondent no.1-State Common Entrance Cell (for short, 'the Cell') to provide it a link and password so as to facilitate uploading the Institutional Profile of the Institute alongwith particulars of twenty seven students admitted in the First Year B.Pharm course coupled with the registration of admissions of the said students.

3. Shri B.G. Kulkarni, learned counsel appearing for the petitioners submitted that on 29/12/2022 the Pharmacy Council of India was pleased to grant approval to the Institute for Academic Session 2022-23 for conducting the First Year B.Pharm course for sixty students. Pursuant thereto, the Higher and Technical Education Department on 30/12/2022 issued a Government Resolution granting permission to start the aforesaid course on a permanent no-grant basis. Thereafter on 9/1/2023, affiliation was granted to the said Institute by Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University. On 10/1/2023, twenty seven students were admitted by providing them spot admission. On 12/1/2023, the Society issued a communication to the Cell requesting approval to the aforesaid admissions. However on 20/1/2023, the Cell informed the Society that the Joint Director, Higher Education had granted the necessary permission on 9/1/2023 but prior thereto the list of the vacant seats after the CAP Round III had been published on its website and therefore the request made by the petitioners could not be granted. It is submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioners that based on the affiliation received on 9/1/2023 the requisite admissions were made and there was no justification on the part of the Cell to refuse to approve the said admissions for the Academic Year 2022-23. Refusal to grant such permission to upload the students' profile would result in depriving the students of one academic year for no justifiable reason. It was thus urged that necessary directions be issued to the Cell to take all necessary steps so as to ensure that the students were not put at a loss of one academic year.

4. Shri N.S. Khubalkar, learned counsel for the Cell opposed aforesaid submissions. At the outset, he invited attention to the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Asha Versus Pt. B.G. Sharma University of Health Sciences & Others [(2012) 7 SCC 389] to urge that the entire admission process of the professional course was required to be conducted in accordance with the Maharashtra Unaided Private Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admissions to the Full Time Professional Post Graduate Technical Courses), Rules, 2017 (for short, 'the Rules of 2017). The last round for admission commenced from 6/1/2023 and it was necessary for the Institute to have received all necessary permissions as well as affiliation prior to that date. It was only thereafter permissible for the Institute to admit the students and participate in the admission process. The petitioners' entry in this process ought to have been one day prior to 6/1/2023 which is 5/1/2023. The learned counsel invited attention to the provisions of Sec. 49 of the Dr.Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University Act, 2014 (for short, 'the Act of 2014') to urge that it was not open for the Institute to undertake the admission process prior to grant of first time affiliation by the University. It was thus submitted that no relief deserves to be granted to the petitioners.

5. Civil Application (W) No. 970 of 2023 has been filed by a beneficiary of the public trust who is also the Vice Principal of Nagpur Homeopathy College run by the Society. Shri A.B. Patil, learned counsel for the applicant invited attention to the information supplied under the provisions of the Right to Information Act, 2005 to urge that the Institute had been gr