The court emphasized the principle that when a power is given to do a certain thing in a certain way, it must be done in that way or not at all, as laid down in Taylor v. Taylor and followed in subsequent judgments.

JUDGMENT

Satish Chandra Sharma, C.J. Vide the present batch of appeals, the Appellants seek to challenge the judgment dated 27.05.2021, passed by the learned Single Judge dismissing a batch of Writ Petitions by which the Appellants herein had sought to challenge a public notice dated 22.09.2019 (hereinafter referred to as `the notice under challenge), issued by the National Council for Teacher Education (hereinafter referred to as `the NCTE`). The notice in question reads as under:

"PUBLIC NOTICE

The National Council for Teacher Education is a statutory body that came into existence in pursuance of the National Council for Teacher Education Act; 1993 (No. 73 of 1993) on the 17th August, 1995 to achieve planned and coordinated development of the teacher education system throughout the country, the regulation and proper maintenance of Norms and Standards in the teacher education system and for matters connected therewith.

2. As part of one of the conditions of recognition, NCTE insists on submission of a Performance Appraisal Report annually which includes annual statement of accounts duly audited by a Chartered Accountant. Similarly, in section 12(j) & (k) of the NCTE Act, 1993, the following is mandated-

(j) examine and review periodically the implementation of the norms, guidelines and standards laid down by t/ze Council, and to suitably advise the recognised institutions;

(k) evolve suitable performance appraisal system, norms and mechanism for enforcing accountability on recognised institutions; 7'

Furthermore, Section 17 of the NCTE Act, 1993 stipulates as under:

"17(1) Where the Regional Committee is, on its own motion or on any representation received from any person, satisfied that a recognised institution has contravened any of the provisions of this Act, or the rules, regulations, orders made or issued thereunder, or any condition subject to which the recognition (emphasis supplied) under sub-section (3) of section 14 or permission under subsection (3) of section 15 was granted, it may withdraw recognition of such recognised institutio11, for reasons to be recorded in writing:

....."

3. Therefore, all Teacher Education Institutions running NCTE recognised Teacher Education Courses are required to annually file a Performance Appraisal Report which is required for regulatory examination of the physical infrastructure, teaching faculty and other stipulations as per NCTE rules, regulation or the NCTE Act.

4. The Performance Appraisal Report (PAR) is now required to be mandatorily submitted by all TEIs online on the specially designed portal (http://ncte.gov.in/Website/PARsystem.aspx). PAR should be submitted for the academic year 2018-2019 through online method and make necessary payments as under:

(i) Central and State Govt. institutions are required to pay Rs.5000/- per institution, regardless of number of courses being run.

(ii) All other categories to pay Rs.15000/- per institution, regardless of number of courses being run.

5. Timeline to submit the on line PAR shall be from 23rd September 2019 to 31st December 2019(mid night).

6. Non-submission of PAR will attract action under section 17(J) of NCTE Act, 1993."

The challenge to the notice is principally on the ground that it is ultra vires to the National Council of Technical Education Act inasmuch as the Member Secretary did not have the power to issue the impugned notice.

2. The National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993 (hereinafter referred to as `the NCTE Act`) was legislated to provide for the establishment of NCTE with a view to achieve planned and co-ordinated development of teacher education system throughout the country, the regulation and proper maintenance of norms and standards in the teacher education system including qualifications of school teachers and for matters connected therewith. Section 2(c) of the Act defines Council to mean the National Council for Teacher Education established under sub-section (1) of Section 3 of the NCTE Act.

3. Section 3 of the A