Educational institutions must provide complete and unconditioned Essentiality Certificates when applying for approval, as incomplete applications are subject to rejection under established regulations.

Dipak Misra, J.

Leave granted.

2. The first respondent, V.N. Public Health & Educational Trust (for short, “the Trust”), vide letter dated 30.08.2015 submitted an application for establishment of a new medical college from the academic year 2016-17 to the competent authority of the Central Government and the said application dated 30.08.2015 was forwarded by the Government of India to the appellant, Medical Council of India (MCI) vide letter dated 23.09.2015. After initial scrutiny of the application, MCI noticed that the Essentiality Certificate issued by the Government of Kerala in favour of the Trust was not valid as the same was not in accordance with the format prescribed by the Establishment of the Medical College Regulations, 1999 (for short, “the Regulations”) of the MCI. Regard being had to the nature of the Essentiality Certificate and the decision of this Court in Royal Medical Trust (Registered) and another v. Union of India & another¹, (2015) 10 SCC 19 the MCI decided to recommend to the Central Government to disapprove the application submitted by the Trust for establishment of a new medical college commencing from the academic year 2016-17. The Government of India vide its letter dated 04.11.2015 called upon the Trust to appear before the Committee on 16.11.2015 to explain its stand. As the said respondent failed to appear before the concerned Committee on the date fixed, the matter was decided ex parte.

3. As the factual score would depict, the Trust being aggrieved by the issuance of an invalid certificate by the State of Kerala and disapproval of its scheme for establishment of a new medical college from the academic year 2016-17 approached the High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam in Writ Petition (C) No. 35705 of 2015. The learned single Judge vide order dated 25.11.2015 issued the following directions:-

“In the light of Ext.P1 renewal application and the renewed Essentiality Certificate, this court is of the view that petitioner’s application for establishment of new Medical College shall not be rejected on account of any deficiency existed in the renewed certificate. In the meanwhile, there shall be a direction to the third respondent to pass appropriate orders on Ext.P6 within ten days. Post after two weeks.”

4. Thereafter the learned single Judge took note of the fresh Essentiality Certificate and the following directions were issued as per the order dated 16.12.2015:-

“The petitioner is an educational agency. They applied for establishment of a medical college. The original Essentiality Certificate issued by the State Government suffered from defects as it was not in the required format. Based on the interim order, the petitioner’s application for Essentiality Certificate kept pending before the Central Government and the State Government was directed to consider the application for fresh revised Essentiality certificate. Now it is submitted that the petitioner has obtained a fresh Essentiality Certificate and it has been submitted before the first respondent. Therefore the first respondent shall consider the application and take a decision after hearing the petitioner and do the needful in accordance with the law.”

5. Dissatisfied with the aforesaid order, the appellant preferred Writ Appeal No. 96 of 2016. It was contended before the Division Bench that pursuant to the order passed by the learned single Judge, the Central Government on 23.12.2015 had asked the MCI to review the recommendation but the said direction was not possible to be adhered to on account of the time schedule fixed pertaining to such matters. It was also urged that the letter of intent had to be issued by the Central Government on or before 15.01.2016 and sufficient time was not available for taking further steps in the matter. Additionally, it was argued that as per the time schedule, MCI was required to give the recommendation to the Central Government for issue of letter of intent by 15.12.2015. The Division Bench, after noting the submi