Delhi High Court - Orders
Rajiv Gandhi College Of Education vs National Council For Teacher Education ... on 29 July, 2022
Author: Sanjeev Narula
Bench: Sanjeev Narula
$~91
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
+ W.P.(C) 11282/2022
RAJIV GANDHI COLLEGE OF EDUCATION ..... Petitioner
Through: Mr. Gaurav Arora, Advocate.
versus
NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TEACHER EDUCATION & ANR.
..... Respondents
Through: Mr. Govind Manoharan and
Mr. Nakul Ranjan, Advocates.
CORAM:
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJEEV NARULA
ORDER
% 29.07.2022 CM APPL. 33158/2022(under Section 151 CPC seeking exemption from filing certified copies of the documents)
1. Exemption is granted, subject to all just exceptions.
2. Petitioner shall file legible and clearer copies of exempted documents, compliant with practice rules, before the next date of hearing.
3. Accordingly, the application stands disposed of.
W.P.(C) 11282/2022
4. Challenge is laid to impugned order dated 26th May, 20221 passed by the Appellate Authority, whereby Petitioner-institute's application impugning the withdrawal order dated 07th January, 2022 passed by Southern Regional Committee ("SRC") was dismissed.
5. Briefly stated, vide order dated 7th December, 2004 SRC granted 1 Bearing File No. 89-51/E-242009/2022 Appeal/4th meeting, 2022, APPL SRC202214282.
Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed W.P.(C) 11282/2022 Page 1 of 4 By:SAPNA SETHI Signing Date:30.07.2022 13:11:12recognition to Petitioner-institute for conducting B.Ed Course with annual intake of 100 students. Subsequently, SRC vide order dated 15th May, 2015, issued a revised recognition order to Petitioner-institute for duration of two years with an annual intake of 100 students from academic session 2015-16 onwards. Later, SRC in its meeting held on 22nd October, 2019 issued a first show-cause notice to Petitioner-institute on account of non-submission of requisite documents in terms of conditions for their recognition.
6. Mr. Gaurav Arora, counsel for Petitioner-institute, argues that pursuant to the said show-cause notice, Petitioner-institute submitted the requisite documents on 22nd November, 2019. Subsequently SRC in its meeting held on 18th and 19th October, 2021, held that there existed certain deficiencies in the documents submitted by Petitioner-institute. It was decided to issue a final show-cause notice to Petitioner-institute, providing an opportunity to submit relevant documents. Thereafter, SRC in its 405 th meeting held on 13th and 14th December, 2021 decided to withdraw Petitioner-institute's recognition vide order dated 07th January, 2022 [hereinafter, "withdrawal order"] which was also confirmed by the Appellate Committee without considering the documents submitted by the Petitioner.
7. The Appellate Committee upheld the withdrawal order on the ground that no reply was submitted by the Petitioner-institute to the final show- cause notice dated 28th October, 2021 issued by the SRC. Moreover, the documents found to be deficient by the SRC in its meeting held on 18th and 19th October, 2021, were duly presented before the Appellate Committee, as Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed W.P.(C) 11282/2022 Page 2 of 4 By:SAPNA SETHI Signing Date:30.07.2022 13:11:12 is evident from the appeal report [annexed as Annexure P-7]. However, the same were not considered before passing the impugned order dated 26 th May, 2022.
8. Mr. Arora also urges that this Court has time and again ruled that any additional material(s), if presented in the course of deciding an appeal, will have to be considered by the Appellate Committee while rendering a final decision in the matter. For this purpose, he places reliance upon a series of judgments beginning with the judgment in Rambha College of Education v. National Council for Teacher Education & Anr.2 He submits that it is not in dispute that the afore-said judgment reiterated the law on this aspect of the matter as enunciated by this Court in Guru Nanak Khalsa College v. NCTE & Anr.3 The judgment in Rambha College of Education (Supra) was carried in appeal by the NCTE right uptil the Supreme Court, without success.4
9. This Court has, in the past, allowed additional material(s)/ document(s) to be produced before the respective regional committee/ Appellate Authority.5
10. Mr. Govind Manoharan, counsel for Respondent, does not dispute the position of law as it stands today, in light of the afore-noted judgments.
2W.P.(C) No. 3231/2016 dated 23rd February, 2017.
3W.P.(C) No. 4218/2010 dated 2nd July, 2010.
4National Council for Teacher Education & Anr. v. Rambha College of Education, in SLP No. 42238/2017 dated 25th January, 2018.
5Asha Devi Mahavidyala v. National Council for Teacher Educaiton & Anr., W.P. (C) 9744/2020 dated 3rd December, 2020.
Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed W.P.(C) 11282/2022 Page 3 of 4 By:SAPNA SETHI Signing Date:30.07.2022 13:11:1211. As the said documents were also placed on record before the Appellate Committee but were not taken into consideration, in the interest of justice and in light of the position taken by co-ordinate benches of this Court, the order dated 26th May, 2022 passed by the Appellate Authority is set-aside, and the matter is remanded back to the Appellate Authority, which shall now decide the same, taking into consideration subsequent developments, and in particular, the documents which were enclosed with the appeal report by Petitioner-institute, within a period of two weeks from the date of uploading of this order in accordance with law.
12. Needless to say, the Appellate Committee shall examine the merits of the case uninfluenced by any of the observations made hereinabove.
13. As the withdrawal order is of 07th January, 2022, in terms of second proviso to Section 17(1) of the National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993, the withdrawal order will take effect from the end of academic session 2022-23. Therefore, the Petitioner would be entitled to take admissions with respect to the academic session 2022-23.
14. With the above directions, the petition is disposed of, along with other pending application(s).
SANJEEV NARULA, J JULY 29, 2022/nk Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed W.P.(C) 11282/2022 Page 4 of 4 By:SAPNA SETHI Signing Date:30.07.2022 13:11:12