Statutory interpretation requires that conditions for new course approvals be reasonable, ensuring they uphold educational standards without being unworkable.

JUDGMENT :

Muralee Krishna, J.

The petitioner in W.P.(C) No.20249 of 2025 filed this writ appeal under Section 5 (i) of the Kerala High Court Act , 1958, challenging the judgment dated 09.09.2025 passed by the learned Single Judge in that writ petition.

2. The facts which led to the filing of the writ petition and then this writ appeal can be summarised as under:

2.1. The South Kerala Medical Mission of the South Kerala Diocese of the Church of South India, a society registered under the Travancore-Cochin Literary, Scientific and Charitable Societies Registration Act , 1955 (‘Act 12 of 1955’ in short), has established and is running the self-financing Medical College, namely, Dr. Somervell Memorial CSI Medical College and Hospital, Karakonam. Various para medical courses such as Bachelor of Physiotherapy (BPT), Bachelor of Science in Medical Laboratory Technology (BSc MLT), Bachelor of Science in Optometry (BSc Optometry) and Master of Hospital Administration are being conducted in the college and are managed and administered by another wing of the Medical College namely, Allied Health Sciences, the Principal of which is the appellant herein.

2.2. The 2^nd respondent, Kerala University of Health Sciences (‘University’ in short) issued Ext.P1 Notification dated 31.08.2024, inviting applications for starting new courses and also enhancement of seats. The appellant had submitted applications for starting Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (BOT) course for 20 seats, Bachelor of Audiology and Speech Language Pathology (BASLP) course of 20 seats, Bachelor of Dialysis Technology (BDT) course of 10 seats, BSc Medical Micro Biology course with 30 seats and also an application for enhancement of number of seats of Master of Hospital Administration (MHA) course from 5 seats to20 seats.

2.3. The 1^st respondent issued Exts.P2, P3 and P4 orders dated 27.06.2024, 07.10.2024 and 03.03.2025, granting No Objection Certificate (‘NOC’, for short) for starting BOT, BASLP, BDT and BSc medical Microbiology courses with the aforementioned numbers and also for enhancing the seats of MHA from 5 to 20. However, the 2^nd respondent University by Ext.P5 letter dated 21.02.2025 rejected the application for starting BDT, BASLP, BOT and BSc Medical Microbiology courses. In Ext.P5, the 2^nd respondent University stated the reason for rejection that the pass percentage of all regular examination of existing batches of BPT, BSc MLT, BSc Optometry and MHA is only 44.15%, which is below the minimum prescribed pass percentage. In Ext.P5, the 2^nd respondent relied on ‘Clause 2(5)(v) of amended 5 Chapter XXI of Kerala University of Health Sciences First Statutes, 2013’ regarding affiliation of colleges, and also University order No.69/2022/Academic/KUHS dated 07.02.2022. It is stated in Ext.P5 that for the purpose of considering applications for enhancement of seats/additional courses, the average of pass percentage of all regular examination of existing batches of all courses under the same stream shall be minimum 50%.

2.4. The appellant states that Ext.P6 is the First Statute of the 2^nd respondent University published in the official gazette dated 29.04.2013, and Chapter XXI of the Statute deals with affiliation of colleges. The University had amended Chapter XXI of Ext.P6 Statute by Ext.P7 notification dated 24.02.2020. According to the appellant, Ext.P7 is not published in the gazette, which is mandatory under Section 46 of the Kerala University of Health Sciences Act , 2010 (‘University Act’ in short).

2.5. It is the further case of the appellant that while issuing Ext.P5 letter dated 21.02.2025, the 2^nd respondent University relied on Ext.P8 University order dated 07.02.2022, wher