IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction Appellate Side Present: - Hon’ble Mr. Justice Subhendu Samanta.

IN THE MATTER OF WPA 27376 of 2022 Avlon Shiksha Niketan & Ors.

Vs.

State of West Bengal & Ors.

For the Petitioners : Mr. Amales Ray, Adv., Ms. Mousumi Bhowal, Adv., Mr. Aman Gupta, Adv., Mr. Ishan Bhattacharya Adv.

For the respondent No. 6 : Mr. Somnath Ganguli, Adv., Ms. Ujani Pal Samanta Adv., For the College Authority : Mr. R. Chakraborty, Adv., Ms. Amrita De Adv.

For the State : Mr. Biswabrata Basu Mallick, Ld. AGP.

Mr. Sanjib Das Adv., Reserved on : 14.01.2024 Judgment on : 27.02.2025 Subhendu Samanta, J.

1. Instant writ petition is filed challenging impugned order dated September 23, 2022 passed by the respondent No. 6 being the Director of Public Instructions, Government of West Bengal, in pursuance to the directions of this court dated August 17, 2022 in WPA 10275 of 2022.

2. The brief fact of the matter is that in 2017-18 Avlon Shiksha Niketan (ASN) petitioner No. 1 conceptualise and manage a three years self financing course, called as BBA in Tourism, Aviation and Hospitality which has been affiliated to the West Bengal State Council of Higher Education and University of North Bengal. The said course was being run by different colleges, in collaboration with petitioner.

3. Sarajoni Naidu College for Women (respondent 4 and 5) has accepted the proposal of petitioner for launching the said BBA course in the said college on certain conditions. Accordingly on 6th February, 2019, the memorandum of understanding (MOU) was executed between the college and Avlon Shiksha Niketan for launching said BBA course in the academic sessions 2019-20,2020-21 and 2021-22. That was granted affiliation by West Bengal State University. The students took admission in the BBA course in the said college and the session has started. The college authority communicated an order of termination of MOU due to “unavoidable circumstances” on

15.05.2022.

4. The petitioner challenges the validity of the impugned termination letter dated 15.05.2022 in earlier writ petition No. WPA 10275 of 2022. The said writ petition was disposed of by a Co-ordinate Bench dated 17.08.2022 with a direction as follows:

In the present case, having regard to the disputed question of facts involved in this case I am inclined to give a direction upon the State to issue appropriate direction in terms of Section 18 of the West Bengal Universities and colleges ( Administration and Regulation) Act, 2017. In that view of the matter, I dispose of the writ petition giving direction upon the Principal Secretary, Department of Higher Education to depute a competent officer to look into the grievance of the petitioner as made out in this writ petition. The said officer will pass the appropriate direction after hearing the college as well as the petitioners. Let such decision be taken within a period of four weeks from the date of communication of this order. Till such decision is taken by the said officer, the order of termination dated May 15, 2022, shall not be given any effect to.

5. In terms of the said direction the Director of Public Instructions has given opportunity to the parties of being heard and passed the impugned order. The operative portion of the impugned order set out as follows:

On scrutiny of the materials made available by the parties, the undersigned is of the view that when some anomalies in the matter of quality education as per standard prescribed by the WBSU and UGC were pointed out the reports of the two committees, the college authority was not supposed to consult the collaborating partner. Since the college authority was not in a position to maintain the standard of education meant for BBA course, it took the painful decision of discontinuing with the BBA (Honours) course and termination of the MOU dated 06.02.2019 without being unmindful of the interest of the final year students to complete their examination, The GB took the decision of disco