Point of Law: Condition precedent to have a deemed recognition is offering of teacher education course from appointed day up to year 2017-18, it cannot be understood that recognition would also be only up to year 2017-18, which would be more so as no such limitation or being circumscribed is provided in provisions of second proviso to Rule 14(1) of NCTE Act, 1993.

JUDGMENT :

Heard Mr. S. Dutta, learned Senior counsel for the petitioner and Mr. U.K. Goswami, learned CGC for the respondent No. 1, being the Union of India through the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. Also heard Mr. I. Alam, learned counsel for the respondents No. 2 and 3, being the authorities under the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) and Mr. S.M.T. Chistie, learned counsel for the respondents No. 4 and 5, being the authorities under the Education Department.

2. The petitioner Hindi Teachers Training College, North Guwahati represented by its Principal is an institution established for training and imparting Hindi courses to the Government teachers of Assam and it is affiliated to the Central Institute of Hindi, Agra. The institute is in existence and functioning since the year 1969 and it is stated to be the only teachers’ training college of Hindi teachers who are serving in various Government schools of Assam. On 31.05.2005, the petitioner institute applied before the authorities under the NCTE for grant of recognition for conducting the Hindi Shikshan Parangat course to the in-service Government teachers of the region. The respondent No. 3 being the Regional Director, Eastern Regional Committee (ERC) of the NCTE by its order dated 21.10.2008 had refused the grant of recognition for conducting the Hindi Shikshan Parangat course for the reasons that the institution had not submitted the list of teaching staff in the prescribed format, the total land area was less than the NCTE norms, the building plan and the building completion certified approved from the competent authority were not submitted.

3. The Principal of the petitioner institute by a letter dated 17.11.2008 requested the Member Secretary of the NCTE not to finalize the order of refusal dated 21.10.2008 as it could have an adverse effect on all the Government schools and colleges of Assam. On 07.01.2015, the Principal of the institute made an application to the Regional Director of NCTE for recognition to the college for conducting Hindi Shikshan Parangat course and along with the application, the required documents etc. were also enclosed but there was no response from the authorities under the NCTE against such application. Subsequent application was made on 30.05.2015 but again there was no response.

4. In the aforesaid circumstance, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India in the Department of School Education and Literacy issued a notification No. S.O.1457(E) dated 12.05.2020, by which in exercise of the powers conferred by the second proviso to Sub-section (1) of Section 14 of the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993 (for short ‘the NCTE Act, 1993’), the Central Government specified the institutions funded by the Central Government or the State Government, as the case may be, and accorded recognition retrospectively, for the courses and duration mentioned in such notification. The petitioner institute finds its place at Sl. No. 5 of the notification dated 12.05.2020 and the course of which recognition was granted was Hindi Shikshan Parangat and the period for which retrospective recognition was granted was from 1995-1996 to 2017-2018.

5. In the circumstance, the petitioner preferred an appeal under Section 18 of the NCTE Act, 1993 before the NCTE Appellate Authority, New Delhi, against the earlier order dated 21.10.2008 by which the ERC of the NCTE had refused recognition of the petitioner institute for conducting the Hindi Shikshan Parangat course. The appeal was given a consideration by the order dated 26.11.2021, by which the appeal stood rejected on the ground that it was instituted after thirteen years of the order dated 21.10.2008. It further provided that in between during the thirteen years, the norms and standards for teacher education programmes have changed in the years 2009 and 2014 and therefore, no recognition can be granted to the petitioner institute. Accordingly, the A