Central Administrative Tribunal - Delhi
Sh. Vikrant Shokhanda vs Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd on 19 November, 2010
Central Administrative Tribunal Principal Bench, New Delhi. OA-1210/2010 New Delhi this the 19th day of November, 2010. Honble Mr. Justice S.D. Anand, Member (J) Honble Dr. A.K. Mishra, Member (A) Sh. Vikrant Shokhanda, S/o Sh. Inderjeet Singh, R/o Flat No. 23, Krishi Apartments, Plot No.4, Sector-13, Rohini, Delhi-85. . Applicant (through Sh. J.S. Malik, Advocate) Versus Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd., Metro Bhawan 13, Fire Brigade Lane, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi-110001. Through its Managing Director. .. Respondent (through Sh. Chandan Kumar, Advocate) O R D E R
Dr. A.K. Mishra, Member (A) This application has been filed with a prayer for a direction to the respondent organization Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited (DMRC) to consider the applicant for appointment on the post of Station Controller/Train Operator subject to his clearing the medical examination.
2. The applicant had obtained a certificate of diploma in Mechanical Engineering in the month of June 2005 from the Institute of Advanced Studies in Education (IASE) having the status of deemed University called Gandhi Vidya Mandir, Sardarshahr.He applied for the post of Station Controller/Train Operator in response to the advertisement during 20-26 June 2009 in respect of 688 such posts. He passed the requisite tests and was declared a successful candidate and was called upon for medical test on 08.12.2009. But, unfortunately without assigning any reason, he was not permitted to go through the medical examination. He served legal notices on the respondent organization on 16.12.2009 and on 11.03.2010. He was informed that the question of recognition of the Institute was being examined. According to the applicant, he had furnished relevant Notifications about recognition of the IASE, but, inspite of such clarification, the respondent organization did not give any favorable response; hence this O.A.
3. According to his averments, he got the diploma in respect of a three year course in Mechanical Engineering having passed out in the First Division. The Govt. of India in its Notification dated 25.06.2002 gave the status of Deemed University to IASE under Section-3 of the UGC Act, 1956. The UGC issued a Notification on 17.07.2002 and declared IASE as a Deemed University for the purpose of provisions of the aforesaid Act. The Association of the Indian Universities also admitted IASE as one of its members, a fact, which was communicated in their letter dated 30.06.2003. AICTE clarified on 14.11.2004 that there was no need for a Deemed University to take prior approval from them to start any Technical Education Programme whether regular, or distance. This clarification was given in reply to the query made by IASE itself. This fact was also clarified again in the Govt. of India Notification dated 07.04.2006 which states that Deemed Universities are empowered to award degrees as specified under the UGC Act, 1956 and that such institutions did not have to take prior approval of AICTE to start technical or management education.
3.1 The Employment News dated 20-26 June, 2009 carried out an advertisement in respect of 688 posts including those of Station Controller/Training Operator for which the minimum qualification prescribed was stated as under:-
Three years Diploma in Mechanical/Electrical/Electronics/Electronics and Communication/Equivalent Engineering with minimum 50% marks from Recognized University/Institute. The only condition which was prescribed in this advertisement was that a candidate should have 50% marks from a recognized University/Institute. The applicant applied for the aforesaid post on 17.08.2009 as he satisfied this condition. After passing the written test held on 13.09.2009 and during 22-24.10.2009, he was declared a successful candidate and his Roll No. 1302334 figured in the newspaper dated 06.10.2009.
4. Since the issue whether IASE was a recognized Institute or not was being examined, the applicant got in touch with the Institute and received a communication from IASE confirming that all the programmes run by the Institute under Distance mode have been recognized till academic session 2007-2008 by appropriate agencies of the government.
5. The respondent organization sought a clarification from the Director Distance Education Council (DEC), Indira Gandhi National Open University Madangiri, New Delhi-67, which, according to them, has stated that the Institute was recognized by them but the specific programmes relating to diploma course in Mechanical Engineering run by them did not have their approval.
5.1 The learned counsel for the respondents submits that the applicant could not have offered any order of appointment as he did not fulfill the conditions relating to qualification, which was advertised for the post for which he applied. He laid emphasis on the following statement of the Director, Distance Education Council given in the letter dated 15.03.2010:-
Further, you may note that during the period of recognition, the DEC had given institutional recognition in place of programme approval to the IASE Deemed University and JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth for offering programmes through distance mode. Thus DEC has not accorded approval to any specific programmes such as Diploma/Degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics & Communication and Telecommunication offered by above universities. Further, in case of technical/professional programmes offered by the university concerned, wherever required, approval from the concerned apex bodies in the country is required to be obtained for which the responsibility vests with the university concerned. He also referred to the Notification dated 01.03.1995 of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, which states that all qualifications awarded through Distance Education mode by the Universities are automatically recognized provided those were approved by the DEC, Indira Gandhi National Open University. Since the applicant had obtained the diploma from IASE by completing the course through Distance Education mode, it was necessary that the course in order to get the status of recognition should have been approved by the DEC. When the Director, DEC has stated specifically that the programme offered by IASE had not been approved by the DEC, it could not have the status of recognition as required in the advertisement. In this connection, he drew our attention to the advertisement released by the UPSC on 02.03.2010 in which it was specifically mentioned under Note-IV that Degree/Diploma etc. obtained by candidates from Open Universities/Distance Education Mode would not be accepted unless it was accompanied by a certificate of recognition by DEC. He also brings to our attention the notice published by DEC in the month of April, 2010 in which all Centres/Institutions/Directorates offering programmes through distance modes have been advised to apply to DEC and obtain prior approval before starting a new centre or a programme. In case an Institution was already running Distance Education programme it was asked to apply to the DEC for recognition of the Institution and approval of programmes. Therefore, it was his contention that in the absence of specific approval of the Mechanical Engineering Course of IASE by DEC, the certificate furnished by the applicant could not be treated as a valid one issued by an Institution, recognized by the Government.
6. The learned counsel for the applicant placed before us the letter dated 30.04.2010 of IASE (Annexure-R/5) in which it was clarified that this Institute had been declared as a Deemed University under Section-3 of the UGC Act, 1956 vide Notification dated 25.06.2002 of the government as well as the Notification of the UGC issued on 17.07.2002. Under Section 22(1) of the Act, the Institute had the right to confer degrees on students successfully completing courses run by the Institute. A joint Committee, which was constituted with Members of UGC, AICTE and DEC dealt with the subject of post facto approval including the case of IASE and in its meeting held on 07.08.2007 approved the distance education programme of IASE and others. The programmes run by them had the specific approval of its statutory body, namely, Academic Council. The UGC in its letter dated 13.11.2007 stated that no further approval from UGC was required. DEC is the competent authority to recognize institutions running the distance education programme and they have specifically mentioned that IASE was given post facto approval to all programmes that were approved by the statutory bodies of the Institute till 2005. The relevant portion of the same letter dated 05.03.2010 relied on by the respondent is extracted below:-
You may note that Distance Education Council (DEC) has accorded post-facto approval to IASE Deemed University, Sardarshar and JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth Udaipur to all programmes (that were approved by Statutory bodies of the Institute) till 2005. The above universities have also been accorded provisional recognition for one academic year 2007-08. No further approval has been accorded to IASE Deemed University as yet by the DEC. The provisional recognition accorded to the JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth Deemed University has been extended till the visit of the Expert Committee and decision is taken by the Joint Committee of UGC-AICTE-DEC. It states in clear terms that all the programmes which were approved by the statutory bodies of the Institute till 2005 got the post-factor approval of DEC.
6.1 A specific clarification was given by Indira Gandhi National Open University in its letter dated 29.08.2007 (Annexure A-13 Colly. P.72), relevant extracts of this letter are reproduced below:-
This has reference to your application requesting for one limit ex-post-facto recognition for programmes offered under distance mode.
In connection with ex-post-facto recognition, we would like to convey that all programmes (that were approved by the statutory bodies of your Institute) are approved till date. As you have not been offering education through distance mode since 2005, all your programmes (approved by the statutory bodies of your Institute) till 2005 happen to be approved by the DEC. The Ministry of Human Resource Development in its letter dated 12.02.2010 (Annexure A-14 p. 76) makes the following observations:-
I refer to your application dated 20.01.2010 on the above noted subject and state that the degrees/diploma already awarded by the IASE, Sardarshahr, Churu, Rajasthan are recognized by the purpose of employment under the Central Government.:
6.2 Besides, IASE in its letter dated 22.12.2009, Annexure A-11 (page-39) has clarified that all the programmes run by the Deemed University under distance mode were given ex-post-facto approval till the academic year 2007-2008 by the Joint Committee consisting of representatives of UGC, DEC and AICTE in its meeting held on 07.08.2007. The minutes of Joint Committee meeting (pages 44-45) support this contention.
7. The applicant had got the diploma certificate in Mechanical Engineering in the month of June 2005. In other words, the programmes run by IASE which had the status of Deemed University got post-facto approval of DEC for all its programmes till 2005 and ad hoc approval was also given for the programmes upto 2007-2008. This position is borne out from the foregoing discussions. Therefore the contention of the applicant that he had a valid diploma from a recognized Institute stand vindicated and we do not see any justification to sustain the objection of the respondents in this regard.
8. In the circumstances, our findings are that the diploma certificate from IASE obtained by the applicant in the year 2005 was a valid one and the Institute from which the applicant passed out had the status of Deemed University having the powers of running programmes in Distance Education mode for which it had post-facto approval from the DEC in respect of the relevant period.
9. In the result, the OA is allowed. The respondent authorities are directed to accept the diploma certificate furnished by the applicant as an appropriate one and consider him for appointment subject to his medical fitness and other requirements of the respondent organization. No costs.
(Dr. A.K. Mishra) (S.D. Anand) Member (A) Member (J) /vv/