IMPORTANT POINT
Educational institutions must obtain necessary approvals and affiliations before admitting students, and interim orders do not confer the authority to bypass regulatory requirements.

ORDER :

DINESH MEHTA, J.

S.B. Civil Writ Petition No.5599/2021.

1. The matter comes up for consideration of an application dated 13.02.2024, whereby the petitioner has prayed that the respondent-University be directed to declare result of the students (60), who have been given admission during the pendency of the present writ petition, more particularly, in pursuance of interim order dated 05.04.2021, passed by Co-ordinate Bench of this Court.

2. Mr. Kotwani, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the Pharmacy Council of India (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Council’) had given approval for the year 2019-2020 to commence first year of ‘D’ Pharma Course for 60 students whereafter, the petitioner which had applied for affiliation started pursuing the Rajasthan University of Health Sciences (hereinafter referred to as ‘RUHS or the University’) for granting affiliation, so that it can get final approval of the Council.

3. Before the academic session 2020-2021 began, the Council conducted an inspection on 24.02.2020 and in furtherance thereof issued a show cause notice dated 31.08.2020 interalia observing that the petitioner had not submitted consent of affiliation by the Examining Authority (RUHS) and staff was not available as per the applicable Regulations. The petitioner was asked to respond and meet out the deficiencies failing which it was observed that the approval granted to it would be withdrawn.

4. The petitioner has set up a case that as the petitioner did not give any admission in the year 2019-2020 and the inspection was held in the month of February 2020, the requisite teaching staff was not found during inspection, but on the advent of Covid-19, all the sessions got delayed and then the staff had been recruited, requisite inspection fee and affiliation fee had been deposited. According to the petitioner, when the counseling for the year 2020-2021 began, the petitioner was not allowed to take part and hence, instant writ petition came to be filed.

5. Mr. Kotwani, contended that since, the petitioner was having approval of the Council (may be for the year 2019-2020) and consent by the respondent-University, it had preferred the writ petition under anticipation that the Council will give requisite approval, as no final order had been passed in pursuance of show cause notice dated 31.08.2020 and the petitioner had removed/cured all the discrepancies.

6. In the writ petition so filed by the petitioner, on 05.04.2021 a Co-ordinate Bench of this Court was pleased to pass the following order:-

“In wake of onslaught of COVID-19, abundant caution is being taken while hearing the matters in Court. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that through Annex-10, RUHS has given affiliation to the petitioner-College. He has also pointed out through Annex-3 that Pharmacy Council of India, the recognition has been given to the petitioner-College for D.Pharma course. He further submits that despite the affiliation and the recognition, the respondents are not included the petitioner-College in the counseling for no good reason.

Issue notice. Mr. Pankaj Sharma, AAG accepts notice on behalf of the respondent No.1.

Mr. Mukesh Rajpurohit, ASG accepts notice on behalf of respondent No.2. Mr. Rajesh Punia, learned counsel accepts notice on behalf of respondent No.3. They seek some time to complete their instructions. List on 22.04.2021. In the meanwhile, the petitioner-College shall be provisionally permitted to participate in the ongoing counseling for D.Pharma course for the academic year 2020-2021. However, the result of the counseling shall not be finalized qua the college in question without prior permission of this Court.”

7. Mr. Kotwani, learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that by the time the interim order came to be passed (on 05.04.2021), the counseling was already over and therefore, the petitioner-College gave admission to the students from management quota, at their own.

8. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted