Supreme Court - Daily Orders
R K University vs Anand Agricultural University on 11 January, 2019
Bench: Arun Mishra, Navin Sinha
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ITEM NO.23 + 29 COURT NO.5 SECTION III
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
Petition(s) for Special Leave to Appeal (C) No(s). 31813/2018
(Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 30-10-2018
in SCA No. 15065/2018 passed by the High Court Of Gujarat At
Ahmedabad)
R K UNIVERSITY Petitioner(s)
VERSUS
ANAND AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY & ORS. Respondent(s)
(FOR ADMISSION and I.R. and IA No.173357/2018-EXEMPTION FROM FILING
C/C OF THE IMPUGNED JUDGMENT and IA No.173369/2018-PERMISSION TO
FILE LENGTHY LIST OF DATES)
WITH
SLP(C) No. 32005/2018 (III)
(FOR ADMISSION and I.R. and IA No.174492/2018-EXEMPTION FROM FILING
C/C OF THE IMPUGNED JUDGMENT)
SLP (C) No. 32590 of 2018
SLP (C) No. 32610 of 2018
Date : 11-01-2019 These petitions were called on for hearing today.
CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE ARUN MISHRA
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE NAVIN SINHA
Counsel for the
parties Mr. P. S. Patwalia, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Dhaval Dave, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Shyam Divan, Sr. Adv.
Mr. Santosh Krishnan, Adv.
Mr. Nikhil Goel, AOR
Ms. Naveen Goel, Adv.
Mr. Avijit Mani Tripathi, AOR
Mr. Amit Kumar, Adv.
Mr. Harish Sharma, Adv.
Mr. Shakeel Ahmed, Adv.
Signature Not Verified
Mr. Rajiv Sharma, Adv.
Digitally signed by
JAYANT KUMAR ARORA
Date: 2019.01.18
12:17:52 IST
Reason:
Mr. Pritesh Kapur, Adv.
Mrs. Hemantika Wahi, AOR
Ms. Jesal Wahi, Adv.
Mr. Vedant Bhardwaj, Adv.
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UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following
O R D E R
The pivotal point involved in this matter is about the interpretation of provisions contained in Gujarat Agricultural Universities Act, 2004. Section 4(4) of the same is extracted below :-
“4.(4) No educational institution imparting education in agriculture and allied sciences or conducting and guiding research in agriculture or conducting and guiding programmes of extension education and situate within the University area shall, save with the consent of the University and the sanction of the State Government, be associated in any way with, or seek admission to any of the privileges of, any other University established by law.” Whereas it is not in dispute that the entire State has been declared under the Act of 2004 as the University area as mentioned in the Schedule.
The private universities have been set up by the State Act. They were under the impression that by virtue of the provisions under Section 3 of the Act, they have no obligation to take either the consent of the Agricultural University as provided under Section 4(4) of the 2004 Act or sanction from the Government to run courses in agriculture and allied sciences. Section 3(4) of the Private Universities Act is extracted hereunder :- 3
“3(4) The Universities shall function as non- affiliating Universities and they shall not affiliate any other college or institution for the conferment of degree, diploma and for grant of certificate to the students admitted therein.” Section 35 of the Act reads as under :-
“35. Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, the University shall be bound to comply all the rules, regulatioins, norms etc. of the regulating bodies of Government of India and provide all such facilities and assistance to such bodies as are required by them to discharge their duties and carry out their functions.” After hearing the learned counsel appearing for the parties at length, we are of the opinion that it was necessary to comply with the provisions of Section 4(4) of the Agricultural University Act, 2004 as observed by the High Court. Considering the wrong decision taken by the Scrutiny Committee of the State Government, a confusion prevailed with the private universities that whether they were required to comply with the provisions of Section 4(4) of the Gujarat Agricultural University Act or not. The learned counsel for the State has stated that in case any application is filed for consent and sanction, the same shall be considered in accordance with law by the concerned authorities. In the circumstances, we permit the universities to file application(s) for grant of consent and sanction within one month to the State and to the Gujarat Agricultural University. In the peculiar facts of this case, as a special case, without making it a 4 precedent, they shall consider the application(s) with retrospective effect and also for future whether such course has to be allowed or not. In case it is decided that for future, permission is not to be granted, they are free to decide on relevant consideration. However, sympathetic consideration may be made for past, as students will be deprived of the validity of the degrees obtained by them and may suffer irreparable injury for no fault of theirs, a sympathetic consideration be made for past recognition as a special case with effect from the date the courses were started by the private universities. Let a decision be taken within six weeks. It is clear that courses could not have been started without sanction of State and consent of Agricultural University. It will also be ensured that the courses in past met the minimum standards prescribed by ICAR.
The State Government as well as the universities shall not be prejudiced by any of the observations made by the High Court in the impugned order while taking the decision.
In view of the above, the Special Leave Petitions are disposed of.
Pending interlocutory application(s), if any, is/are disposed of.
(JAYANT KUMAR ARORA) (JAGDISH CHANDER) COURT MASTER BRANCH OFFICER