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2020 Supreme(Mad) 1176
IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADRAS
M. SATHYANARAYANAN, ANITA SUMANTH, JJ.
Annai J.K.K. Sampoorani Ammal Charitable Trust - Appellant
Versus
The Registrar, Tamil Nadu MGR Medical University and Ors. - Respondents
W.A. No. 3534 of 2019 and C.M.P. No. 22718 of 2019
Decided On : 16-06-2020
For the Appellant : G. Masilamani, Senior Counsel assisted by Prabu Mukunth Arunkumar.
For the Respondents: D. Ravichandran, G. Karthikeyan, Assistant Solicitor General, M.A. Arunesh for M.T. Arunan, V. Jayaprakash Narayan and Rabu Manohar, Senior Counsel.
Headnote:
Special Act – Pharmacy Act – Writ petitioner is the appellant herein – Writ petitioner made a challenge to the order of the first respondent, signed, in and by which, the requirement of Essentiality Certificate was directed to be complied with, by filing a writ petition in W.P. and it had ended in dismissal, vide impugned order and challenging the legality of the said order, the present appeal is filed – Facts leading to the present round of litigation have been narrated in detail and in extenso in the impugned order passed in the writ petition, which is the subject matter of challenge and therefore, for the sake of brevity, the facts are not restated except the necessary relevant facts for the disposal of this writ appeal –Held, Counter affidavit of the first respondent in the writ petition as well as in this writ appeal do not throw any light as to the power of the State Government to insist upon obtaining of Essentiality Certificate and it appears that the first respondent/University merely heeded to that though it does not have any statutory backing – It is also a well settled position of law that if a Statute prescribes a thing to be done in a particular manner, it can be done only in that manner and not in any other manner – State Government lacks power to insist upon obtaining of Essentiality Certificate for the purpose of production before the first respondent/University for processing the Consent of Affiliation – Though heavy reliance has been placed upon the letter of the Principal Secretary to Government of Tamil Nadu, Department of Health and Family Welfare in Letter, referred to supra, the said letter has no application to the case on hand for the reason that the said instructions came to be issued in the light of stand alone courses conducted by the first respondent/University, which do not have any affiliation with any of the Statutory Councils, namely MCI/DCI/PCI – Therefore, it is held that it is not obligatory on the part of the appellant to obtain Essentiality Certificate from the State Government and produce before the first respondent/University for processing the Consent of Affiliation – Writ Appeal is allowed.
JUDGMENT :
M. Sathyanarayanan, J.
1. The writ petitioner is the appellant herein. The writ petitioner made a challenge to the order of the first respondent dated 05.08.2019, signed on 07.08.2019, in and by which, the requirement of Essentiality Certificate was directed to be complied with, by filing a writ petition in W.P. No. 25473 of 2019 and it had ended in dismissal, vide impugned order dated 14.10.2019 and challenging the legality of the said order, the present appeal is filed.
2. Facts leading to the present round of litigation have been narrated in detail and in extenso in the impugned order passed in the writ petition, which is the subject matter of challenge and therefore, for the sake of brevity, the facts are not restated except the necessary relevant facts for the disposal of this writ appeal.
2.1. It is not in dispute that the petitioner Trust had obtained necessary approvals for starting a Pharmacy College from All India Council For Technical Education [in short "AICTE"] as well as from the Pharmacy Council of India [in short "PCI"] - second respondent herein for the academic year 2015-2016 for conducting B.Pharma Degree Course and provisional affiliation has also been accorded by the first respondent/University, which has been extended from time to time.
2.2. The first respondent University, vide communication dated 12.10.2018 in RC. No. Affln.1(5)/08986/2019, had informed that all the affiliated institutions to obtain the requirement of permission letter from the Government for starting Allied Health Science Courses & Paramedical Courses and in this regard, sent a communication dated 08.04.2019 to the appellant/writ petitioner to submit the required documents for considering the issue of Consent of Affiliation to start Pharm.D course including Essentiality Certificate obtained from the Government of Tamil Nadu.
2.3. The appellant/writ petitioner, in response to the said communication, had submitted some of the required documents and having noted that one of the documents namely, Essentiality Certificate have not been obtained from the Government of Tamil Nadu and submitted to the first respondent-University for issuance of Consent of Affiliation, the impugned communication dated 05.08.2019, signed on 07.08.2019, has been issued by the first respondent/University.
2.4. The appellant/writ petitioner, made a challenge to the said order by filing W.P. No. 25473 of 2019 by raising among other grounds that the impugned letter of the first respondent/University is without any prescription as contemplated under the Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University Act and it cannot scuttle or set aside the approval already granted by the Central Expert Body/second respondent created under the Central Statute. It was further pointed out by the appellant/writ petitioner that the impugned letter runs contrary to the decisions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Rungta Engineering College Bhilai and Another v. Chhattisgarh Swami Vivekanand Technical University [(1995) 4 SCC 104] and Jaya Gokul Educational Trust v. Commissioner & Secretary to Government, Higher Education Department] [(2015) 11 SCC 291] and prayed for interference.
2.5. The first respondent has filed a counter affidavit and took a stand that in the absence of challenge to the Government Order dated 31.08.2018, insistence upon production of Essentiality Certificate cannot be put to challenge independently. It is the further stand of the first respondent University that the condition for obtaining Essentiality Certificate from the Government before starting a course for Allied Health Science and Paramedical Courses is inevitable and indispensable and having necessary statutory backing and therefore, prayed for dismissal of this writ petition.
2.6. The learned Judge, in para 12 of the impugned order, observed among other things that though the power of the State Government is restrictive, it does not mean it is without power and the letter of the Government dated 31.08.2018 is instr
