Rajasthan High Court - Jaipur
Uttam Pvt. Iti vs State Of Rajasthan on 24 August, 2021
Bench: Sangeet Lodha, Mahendar Kumar Goyal
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE FOR RAJASTHAN
BENCH AT JAIPUR
D.B. Special Appeal Writ No. 670/2021
In
S.B. Civil Writ Petition No.670/2021
Uttam Pvt. ITI, Khasra No. 248/464-V, Jalimpura, Post Sultanpur,
Taluk Digod, Dist. Kota Pin 325204 (Rajasthan) through Society
Uttam Education and Welfare Society Rajasthan, Jhalawar
through President Uttam Singh Son of Shri Kunjilal Meena, aged
about 54 Years, R/o 1/171, Swami Vivekanand Nagar, Kota,
Rajasthan.
----Petitioner-Appellant
Versus
1. State of Rajasthan, through Principal Secretary, Ministry
of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Secretariat,
Jaipur (Rajasthan).
2. Director, Technical Education, Rajasthan, W-6, Residency
Road, Jodhpur-342001.
3. Director of Training, Member Secretary (NCVT), Ministry
of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Directorate
General of Training, Room No.5, 1st Floor, Employment
Exchange Building, Near ITI Campus, IARI Campus, Pusa,
New Delhi.
----Respondents
For Appellant(s) : Shri Khurshid Ahmed Khan
For Respondent(s) :
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANGEET LODHA
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MAHENDAR KUMAR GOYAL
Judgment
24/08/2021
(PER HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE MAHENDAR KUMAR GOYAL):
This intra court appeal preferred by the unsuccessful petitioner, a private Industrial Training Institute, assails the order dated 16.4.2021 whereby, the learned Single Judge while (Downloaded on 31/08/2021 at 09:06:52 PM) (2 of 5) [SAW-670/2021] dismissing the writ petition directed the appellant to refund the fee collected from the 360 students with interest @ 10% alongwith compensation of Rs.10,000 each to be paid by the Society which runs the institute.
The facts in brief are that the appellant institute filed a writ petition stating therein that vide affiliation letter dated 30.7.2013 issued by the National Council for Vocational Training (for brevity- `the NCVT'), it was permitted to impart vocational training in 18 Trades of Electrician. The appellant averred that the respondent no.2 included its name in the seat matrix for the year 2019 and was allowed admission against 360 seats in Electrician Trade. It was stated that after admitting 360 students, when the appellant institute tried to upload the data on the NCVT MIS Portal on DGT website, the same was not accepted. It was prayed in the writ petition that the respondents may be directed to allow the appellant to upload data of the admitted students on the NCVT Portal.
The respondents no.1 and 2 in their reply submitted that the State Government conducted an inspection of the appellant- institute on 6.9.2019 wherein it was found that the institution was not imparting regular training and was not having requisite infrastructure in serious violation of the NCVT norms and standards. It was further stated that the reply submitted by the appellant-institute to the show cause notice issued by it, was not found satisfactory and a physical verification of the institute was conducted on 18.12.2019 wherein also neither any student nor any staff was found present and it was also found that no training activity was being carried out.
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(3 of 5) [SAW-670/2021] The respondent no.3, the NCVT in its reply submitted that a Sub-Committee of the NCVT in its meeting dated 18.10.2018 took a policy decision that if 100% of the seats in any trade or unit of any ITI either government or private, remains vacant for two consecutive years, it will attract de-activation on NCVT MIS Portal which could be re-activated only after review by NCVT Sub- Committee on the basis of fresh Joint Inspection Committee Report. The aforesaid decision of the NCVT Sub-Committee was communicated to all the State Directors vide letter dated 20.12.2018 (Annexure-R3/5). It was submitted that the decision was also published on NCVT MIS Portal on 02.01.2019 which is a single point of information to all stakeholders. A list of such ITIs including the appellant-ITI was published on the NCVT MIS portal (Annexure-R3/6). It was further averred that as per the training schedule published by the NCVT vide letter dated 5.8.2019, the last date for admission in the private ITIs was fixed as 13.9.2019 which was extended to 11.10.2019 and finally to 21.10.2019. Therefore, uploading of any data by any institute after 21.10.2019 was, even otherwise also, not permissible on MIS portal.
The learned Single Judge has, vide order dated 16.4.2021 impugned herein, dismissed the writ petition and directed the appellant-institute to refund the students their fee with interest @ 10% along with compensation as stated hereinabove.
Learned counsel for the appellant contended that once its name was included in the seat matrix issued by the Director, Technical Education, it was well within its right to admit students against the sanctioned strength. It was further submitted that it has already deposited requisite fee with the NCVT for re-activation (Downloaded on 31/08/2021 at 09:06:52 PM) (4 of 5) [SAW-670/2021] of its trade. He contended that the appellant has never been de- affiliated, nor it has received any show cause notice for de- affiliation and hence, the learned Single Judge erred in dismissing the writ petition.
Heard learned counsel for the appellant and perused the record.
The NCVT was established by the Central Government vide notification dated 5.12.2018 which is the apex body responsible for establishing minimum standards, regulating teaching and training to be imparted by ITIs engaged in vocational education and training. Indisputably, the appellant-institute has not granted a single admission in the Electrician Trade for four years since the year 2015. Therefore, as per policy decision dated 18.12.2018 taken by the NCVT Sub-Committee, the Electrician Trade being run by the appellant-institute was deactivated which was duly communicated to the State Directorate by it vide letter dated 20.12.2018 and a list of de-activated ITIs including the appellant- institute was uploaded on the NCVT MIS Portal. It has not been case of the appellant-institute that it was unaware of the de- activation of its trade; rather, the appellant-institute has claimed to have deposited the requisite fee for re-activation of its trade. The competence of the NCVT to de-activate the trade or the decision taken on 18.12.2018 de-activating its trade has not been subject matter of challenge in the writ petition.
In these circumstances, on the day, the appellant-institute extended admission to 360 students in the Electrician Trade, on account of de-activation by the NCVT, it was not authorised to do (Downloaded on 31/08/2021 at 09:06:52 PM) (5 of 5) [SAW-670/2021] so even if its name was included by the respondent no.2 in the seat matrix.
There is another important aspect of the matter. A perusal of the inspection report dated 18.12.2019 reveals that the appellant- institute, even after admission of 360 students, did not have either any student or staff at the time of inspection. The report also reveals absence of any training activity being carried out in the institute as well as lack of basic infrastructure. Conspicuously, the appellant has concealed the factum of its inspection carried out on 18.12.2019 in the presence of its principal as well as its incharge/representative. The Court also notices that the appellant has nowhere disputed the deficiencies found during the inspection carried out on 18.12.2019.
In the aforesaid circumstances, this Court finds no justification for interfering with the well reasoned order passed by the learned Single Judge.
Resultantly, the special appeal is dismissed devoid of merit. (MAHENDAR KUMAR GOYAL),J (SANGEET LODHA),J RAVI SHARMA /7 (Downloaded on 31/08/2021 at 09:06:52 PM) Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)