The State has the right to prescribe regulatory provisions for ensuring educational excellence, even in minority institutions.

G.C. Bharuka, J.-These two writ petitions have been referred to me under clause 23 of the Letters Patent because of the difference of opinion on certain points between S.B. Sanyal, J. and Aftab Alam, J.

2. In the present cases the difference of opinion is only on the question as to whether the provisions of the Bihar Medical Institutions (Regulation and Control) Act, 1981 (hereinafter to be referred to as the 'Regulation Act' only) will apply to the Medical Colleges sought to be established and administered by religious and linguistic minorities. S.B. Sanyal, J. has opined that such institutions can be established and administered only subject to the provisions of the Regulation Act, whereas Aftab Alam, J. has taken the view that in the light of the Constitutional guarantee as envisaged under Article 30 of the Constitution, the provisions of the Regulation Act can not have any application to the minorities Institutions.

3. For deciding the points of law, which have fallen for consideration, it is not necessary to consider the factual aspects of the cases in any greater details. But for the proper appreciation of the reliefs claimed by the petitioners in the present writ applications, it is necessary to state some of the relevant facts. Al-Karim Educational Trust is the first petitioner in C.W.J.C. No. 7985 of 1990. It is a registered Society. Its claim is that in its meeting held on 31-5-1987 it was resolved to establish a Medical College to be known as Katihar Medical College, Katihar. But, curiously, in contemplation of establishing a Medical College at Katihar, the first year class of the first M. B. B. S. course was started in a rented building at Patna. This was for the session 1987-88. Admittedly, before admitting the students to the M.B.B.S. courses, neither per• mission was obtained from the Government as envisaged under Section 2 of the Act nor any affiliation was accorded to the College by the University. On 16-5-88 an application was made by the petitioner-society to L. N. Mithila University, Darbhanga, for affiliation of the College and to allow its students to appear at the first M. B. B. S. Examination conducted by the said University. It appears that pursuant to this application the University constituted an Inspection team which inspected the College situate at Patna on 15-3-89 and submitted its report on 15-4-89 (Annexure 5/A of C.W.J.C. No. 7985 of 1990). The report recommended for grant of temporary affiliation for three years on fulfilment of certain conditions. Accordingly the Registrar of the University forwarded the said report to the State Government for its approval and appropriate decision. But, according to the petitioners, no Government decision in this regard has yet been communicated to then. On the other hand in para 12 of the counter-affidavit filed on behalf of the Government, it has been state-d that on the basis of the materials avai1able on the record, the State Government was satisfied that the Institution did not qualify for recognition/affiliation and, therefore, rejected the claim of the Institution for recognition.

4. I may first deal with the technical objection raised by Mr. Basudeo Prasad, based on the construction of Clause 28 of the Letters Patent. His claim is that these cases can not be heard by me as a third Judge because two Hon'ble Judges have not stated the points upon which they have differed. The order dated 19-4-91 merely states that, in view of the difference on some major points, let this case be placed before the Hon'ble the Chief Justice for being referred to a third Judge." I need not detain myself to consider this objection at any greater length because similar objection were raised on earlier occasion be fore this Court and the same has always been dispelled. In this connection, I may refer to the case of Most. Ruliya Devi and others vs. Raghunath Ptasad, AIR 1979 Patna, 115, wherein it has been held by L. M. Sharma, J, that, "it is no where peremptorily prescr