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High Court Of Calcutta
V. S. Sirpurkar, Aniruddha Bose
ANJAN BHATTACHARYA - Appellant
Versus
STATE OF WEST BENGAL - Respondent
W. P. 11247 (W) Of 2006
Decided On : 06/27/2006
NCTE ACT - AFFILIATION - SUBJECT, ACT-SECTION REFERRED : Section 12, 14, 15, 16, 17(4), 66 - In the absence of NCTE recognition, universities cannot grant affiliation or hold examination for teacher training courses. NCTE Act overrides State Acts incorporating universities. NCTE recognition is not an empty formality. Affiliation granted by universities to unrecognized colleges is non est. Students of unrecognized institutions cannot sit for B. Ed. examination. Certificates granted to them are not valid. NCTE Act is referable to Entry 66 of Central List and is not subject to State Acts. There is no overlapping between Entry 66 of Central List and Entry 32 of State List. The present case is a Public Interest Litigation.
Fact of the Case:
Petitioners, practicing advocates and responsible citizens, filed a PIL seeking to eradicate illegal, collusive, and damaging activities of university authorities in granting affiliation to several unrecognized colleges for running teacher training courses without NCTE recognition. They pointed out that such colleges were misleading students and that the certificates granted by the universities would be invalid. The petitioners also highlighted the NCTE's public notice suggesting that teacher education qualification obtained from institutions not recognized by the NCTE is not valid for employment.
Finding of the Court:
The Court held that in the absence of NCTE recognition, universities cannot grant affiliation or hold examinations for teacher training courses. It further held that the NCTE Act overrides State Acts incorporating universities and that NCTE recognition is not an empty formality. The Court also held that the affiliation granted by universities to unrecognized colleges is non est and that students of unrecognized institutions cannot sit for the B. Ed. examination. The Court further held that certificates granted to them are not valid. The Court also held that the NCTE Act is referable to Entry 66 of the Central List and is not subject to State Acts. The Court further held that there is no overlapping between Entry 66 of the Central List and Entry 32 of the State List. Lastly, the Court held that the present case is a Public Interest Litigation.
Issues: Whether the affiliation is valid and whether the examination of B. Ed. to be held by these universities can be said to be a valid examination entitling the students passing in the examination to a valid degree or diploma? What is the effect of the affiliation granted by the various universities to the new unrecognized colleges claiming to have infrastructural and education facilities? Can the students passing out from such colleges claim valid degrees qualifying them to be the teachers? What is the significance of the various Universities Act vis-a-vis the NCTE act and what is the effect of the breach of the provisions of the NCTE Act? Can the writ petition be treated as a Public Interest Litigation?
Ratio Decidendi: The Court relied on the following principles to arrive at its decision: 1. In the wake of the positive language of section 16 read with section 14 (6) of the NCTE Act, the universities cannot grant affiliation to the concerned colleges in the absence of the recognition by the NCTE and resultantly students studying in such colleges cannot sit for the examinations. 2. It is not possible for those colleges to be affiliated by the universities nor could the universities allow the students of those colleges (institutions) to sit for the examination of B. Ed. course for the session 2005-06 since the colleges were not recognised by the NCTE before that course. 3. The affiliation to those colleges would have to be cancelled and in result students could not be sent for the examination. 4. It would be dangerous to allow such colleges to be allowed to conduct teachers training course and send students for examination because that would be against the interest of the society in general and children in particular and in sending such students for the examination, the caution sounded by the Supreme Court for more than 12 years would be rendered illusory. 5. The NCTE Act is referable to Entry 66 of Central List (List I), while the State Acts are referable to Entry 32 of the State List (List II). The subject of education, after the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution, which was at Entry No. 11 in the State Last has been brought in the Concurrent List at Entry 25 and Entries 63 to 66 in the Central List. 6. There would be an exclusive power in favour of the Parliament to legislate particularly on the subjects referred to in Entry 66 which is set out as under: "co-ordination and determination of standards in institutions for higher education or research and scientific and technical institutions." 7. Once that power is conceded to the Parliament the statutes made under that entry would cover the field exclusively for the parliament and to that extent the State Legislations would be ineffective.
Final Decision: The writ petition was allowed. The Court directed the unrecognized colleges to return all the fees recovered to each of the students within three months from the date of the judgment. The Court also directed the unrecognized colleges to pay compensation of Rs. 5,000/- to each of the students.
( 1 ) THIS writ petition, which is in the nature of Public interest Litigation, has been filed by two petitioners, who are the practising advocates of the Calcutta High Court and assert themselves as the responsible citizens with social obligations having duty to see that there is no violation of statutory provisions particularly in the field of education. They also give out a purpose of eradicating illegal, collusive and damaging activities of the university authorities in Calcutta University, Vidyasagar University, Burdwan University and Kalyani University in granting affiliation to number of unrecognized colleges in the State of West Bengal for running teacher training courses, which colleges have not obtained recognition from the National Council for Teacher education under the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993. The petitioners have joined all the abovenamed universities as parties and also have further joined the individual colleges. Their concern shown for filing the petition is to save the students who would not be able to get a valid B. Ed, degree from the respondent colleges on account of the fact that the colleges in which they are taking training are not recognized by the National Council for teacher Education (NCTE for short ). It is pointed out that huge expenditure is made by the guardians of these students for all the education, particularly for prosecuting the B. Ed, course and all that would be wasted on account of the fact that the colleges in which they are educated are unrecognized colleges and, therefore, the universities would not be in a position to confer upon them a valid B. Ed, degree which is a valid qualification for getting the employment as a teacher. Shortly stated, the petitioners contend that in the absence of such a recognition from the NCTE under the NCTE Act, 1993, no affiliation could have been granted by any of these universities to such colleges and, therefore, the certificates issued by the concerned universities to the students of such institutes after the examination, would be simply invalid in terms of the statutory provisions, more particularly, under section 16 of the NCTE Act. The petitioners have pointed out that the Calcutta University had granted affiliation to 11 colleges which was not recognized by the NCTE, the Vidyasagar University also had granted affiliation to approximately 8 unrecognized colleges, Burdwan university had also given affiliation to 8 colleges while Kalyani University has given affiliation to one or more unrecognized colleges, which act was completely illegal in the absence of the recognition of such colleges by the NCTE. It is reiterated that unfortunately, the students have no knowledge that the certificates granted by the university for
prosecuting the course of B. Ed, would be of no consequence.
( 2 ) THE petitioners have also filed a list of recognized colleges under the ncte Act affiliated to these very universities. According to the petitioners, the unrecognized institutes and the affiliating universities are misleading the students by imparting the course, holding examination and granting certificates without any authority under the law and as such, the certificates of the students would be simply rendered as of no value. Various provisions under section 16 etc. are relied upon by the petitioners and quoted in the petition.
( 3 ) IT is also pointed out that the NCTE, Eastern Regional Committee, bhubaneswar has published and circulated a public notice and sent it to the universities of the Eastern Region and also got it published in the newspaper on 7th October, 2005, itself suggesting that the teacher education qualification obtained from the institutions not recognized by the NCTE is not valid for employment under Central Government or any State Government or university or any school, college or other educational body aided by the Central Government or any State Government. It is pointed out that in that notic
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