The judgment established the importance of adhering to the minimum eligibility criteria as per the regulations and highlighted the need for procedural fairness in administrative decisions.

Heard Mr. S. K. Agarwal, Senior Advocate and Mr. Rajendra Dobhal, Senior Advocate assisted by Mr. Vipul Sharma, Advocate and Mr. Harshpal Shekhon, Advocate for the petitioner, Mr. Paresh Tripathi, Additional Chief Standing Counsel for the State of Uttarakhand and Mr. V. B. S. Negi, Assistant Solicitor General for the Union of India.

2. The petitioner before this Court is an Ayurvedic College which is being run by a trust known as Divya Yog Mandir (Trust). Ayurvedic colleges and institutions running in India are governed by an Act known as Indian Medicine Central Council Act, 1970 (from herein referred to as IMCC Act). Under the said Act a body has been constituted known as Central Council of Indian Medicine (hereinafter referred to as CCIM), with its office at New Delhi. In order to run an Ayurvedic course, the petitioner had to get an approval from the said council i.e. CCIM. On 20.7.2009, CCIM granted for the first time approval to the petitioner to have an Ayurvedic course for the year 2009-10. The Ayurvedic course was known as Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery (hereinafter referred to as BAMS). This approval was granted to the petitioner under Section 13 (A) of the IMCC Act. The provisions of Section 13(A) clearly stipulate that no person can either establish a medical college (i.e. Ayurvedic Medical College) or run Ayurvedic course without an approval of CCIM. It further stipulates that on an application and after a regular survey and inquiry and inspection, as the case may be, CCIM may either approve admission in a particular course or disapprove or approve with certain conditions. Consequently, on application moved by the petitioner and after an inspection was made by a team of CCIM an approval was granted to the petitioner. At this stage, it must be stated that the said course for which the education is imparted by the petitioner college, a degree is awarded by Uttarakhand Technical University and the entire course is spread into three professionals and one year of internship. Each professional is spread over a period of 18 months. For the year 2009-10, conditional permission was granted by which 50 students were admitted in the institute. Thereafter for the year 2010-11 another batch of students was admitted. For the third year i.e. for the year 2011-12, no permission was granted to the petitioner by CCIM and consequently no students could be admitted for the year 2011-12. Now for the year 2012-13 again permission was sought by the petitioner for admitting fresh students in BAMS course. A conditional approval was granted to the petitioner which is annexure 6 to the writ petition. This approval was granted by the Under Secretary to Government of India vide notification dated 17.5.2012 after an inspection was done by team of CCIM. Since this approval has been granted with certain conditions, it must be reproduced here. Paragraph Nos. 3, 4 and 5 of the said permission which are stipulated in the letter of the Government of India (Annexure-6) read as under:-

3. The recommendations and visitation report of the CCIM have been carefully examined in terms of the IMCC Act and relevant Regulations and approved norms for grant of permission for the academic year 2012-13 for the UG course vide Departments letters No.R.11011/5/2010 dated 18.03.2011 and 21.03.2011 and No.R.11011/10/2011 dated 27.12.2011, which were issued to all colleges, universities and State Governments and also available on Departments website and it is found that the College is fulfilling the approved criteria as follows:

(i) Teachers: 90% eligible teachers, 50% Higher Faculty (Professor+Reader) and at least one teacher in each Department (14 in Ayurvedas/Siddha and 7 in Unani) and

(ii) Beds in hospital: Minimum 100 beds in hospital of Ayurveda/Siddha Colleges up to 50 intake capacity + 1:2 student-bed ratio for 51 100 students intake capacity and

(iii) 100 patients per day in OPD during the year 2011 and

(iv) 40% bed occupancy for UG institutions duri