Madras High Court
Dalit Christians Educational And vs The Vice Chanceller on 25 August, 2014
Author: K.Ravichandrabaabu
Bench: N.Paul Vasanthakumar, K.Ravichandrabaabu
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS
DATED:- 25-08-2014
CORAM:
THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE N.PAUL VASANTHAKUMAR
AND
THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE K.RAVICHANDRABAABU
W.A.No.2224 of 2012
Dalit Christians Educational and
Development Trust Thuckalay,
Sus Building,
Eraniel Village,
Kalkulam Taluk,
Kanyakumari District,
rep. By A.Ebenezer,
Chairman/Managing Trustee. ... Appellant
Versus
1.The Vice Chanceller,
Pondicherry University,
Puducherry.
2.The Pondicherry (Central) University,
Rep. By the Register,
Pondicherry University,
Puducherry.
3.The Assistant Registrar (Aca-2),
Pondicherry University,
Puducherry.
4.The Deputy Registrar (Aca-1),
Pondicherry University,
Puducherry.
5.The Controller of Examination,
(ACA-1), Pondicherry University,
Puducherry. ... Respondents
Prayer:- Writ Appeal filed under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent against the order of the learned single Judge dated 28.08.2012 made in W.P.No.20540 of 2008.
For Appellant :- Mr.C.Chinnasami,
Senior Counsel
for Mr.G.Balamanikandan
For Respondents :- Mrs.A.V.Bharathi
JUDGMENT
K.RAVICHANDRABAABU,J.
This writ appeal is directed against the order made in W.P.No.20540 of 2008 dated 28.08.2012, in dismissing the writ petition filed challenging the proceedings of the third respondent herein dated 18.02.2008 and consequently for a direction to the respondents to continue the affiliation and permit the appellant herein to admit the students and appoint the staff of the appellant educational and development trust. Through the said impugned proceedings, the appellant educational trust was directed to seek affiliation to Dr.Noble Memorial Christian College of Arts and Science, Thuckalay, Kanyakumari District, from the next academic year (2008-09) onwards from the University which has jurisdiction over the area where the appellant college is situated, as the first respondent University was constrained not to consider the appellant for further affiliation.
2.It is the case of the appellant as the writ petitioner before the learned single Judge that the above said College established and being administered by the appellant Trust, admitted students for the academic year 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 and provisional affiliation was granted for 2005-06 and extension of affiliation was also issued for each year. It is their further contention that the said college had submitted an application to the first respondent University on 28.09.2007, seeking for provisional affiliation for the academic year 2008-09 and the same was rejected without considering the fact that Section 10A(1) of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004, as amended by the Central Act 18 of 2006 with effect from 29.03.2006, cannot be applied to the petitioner retrospectively to reject the request for affiliation for the academic year 2008-09.
3.The claim of the writ petitioner was resisted by the first respondent University by contending that pursuant to the introduction of Section 10A of the said Act, the petitioner college cannot seek for any affiliation with the first respondent University, since under section 7 of the Pondicherry University Act, it can only affiliate the College coming under the jurisdiction of Union Territory of Puducherry and Andaman Nicobar Islands and as per Section 10A of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004, the Minority Educational Institutions may seek affiliation to any University of its choice subject to such affiliation being permissible within the Act under which the said University is established.
4.The learned Single Judge after considering the rival pleadings and submissions of the respective parties and also the relevant provision of law governing the issue involved in this case, dismissed the writ petition by holding that the said college was not an affiliated college as on date and the college also did not enjoy any permanent affiliation earlier. The learned Judge has also pointed out that the choice of seeking affiliation to the College is now restricted in the University statute, wherein the University must have the jurisdiction to affiliate the college. Thus, the learned Judge further observed that the petitioner Trust can apply for affiliation to Manonmanian Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, under which territorial jurisdiction the petitioner's college comes.
5.The learned Senior counsel appearing for the appellant reiterated the submissions made before the learned single Judge and contended that once the affiliation was granted upto the academic year 2007-08, the request of the appellant Trust seeking for affiliation to the College for the next academic year viz., 2008-09, cannot be rejected by citing the amendment introduced in the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004 more particularly, by introduction of Section 10A of the said Act. To put it simply, the argument advanced by the learned Senior counsel for the appellant is to the effect that once the affiliation is granted for the earlier academic years, the respondent University is bound to consider the application for affiliation to the subsequent academic years also, without reference to the amended provision of law governing the affiliation of the colleges as the amendment cannot be applied with retrospective effect.
6.Per contra, the learned counsel appearing for the respondent University submitted that when the appellant college is not located, admittedly within the territorial jurisdiction of the first respondent University, it cannot seek affiliation in view of Section 7 of the Pondicherry University Act, which contemplates that such affiliation can be granted only to the colleges which come within the jurisdiction of the first respondent University. The learned counsel also contended that the appellant was granted only provisional affiliation, prior to the amendment.
7.We have considered the rival submissions made by the respective learned counsels and perused the materials placed before this court.
8.Admittedly, the appellant, is a Minority Educational Trust established Dr.Noble Memorial Christian College of Arts and Science, situated at Thuckalay, Kanyakumari District. No doubt, the appellant's college was granted provisional affiliation for B.Com. (Foreign Trade) Course for the academic year 2005-06 and was extended upto 2007-2008. The said affiliation was sought for by the appellant's institution from the first respondent University based on the right conferred under erstwhile section 10 of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004 wherein it was contemplated that the Minority Educational Institutions may seek recognition as an affiliated college of a scheduled University of its choice However, Section 10A was introduced by way of an amendment with effect from 29.03.2006, replacing original Section 10 wherein it is contemplated that Minority Educational Institution may seek affiliation to any University of its choice subject to such affiliation being permissible within the Act under which the said University is established. Section 10(A) of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004, reads as follows:
10A.Right of a Minority Educational Institution to seek affiliation:-
(1) A Minority Educational Institution may seek affiliation to any University of its choice subject to such affiliation being permissible within the Act under which the said University is established.
(2) Any person who is authorised in this behalf by the Minority Educational Institution, may file an application for affiliation under sub section (1) to a University in the manner prescribed by the Statute, Ordinance, rules or regulations, of the University:
Provided that such authorised person shall have right to know the status of such application after the expiry of sixty days from the date of filing of such application. Therefore, it is evident that originally the right conferred under Section 10 to seek recognition/affiliation from any University of its choice is now qualified with a rider by way of introducing Section 10A to the effect that such recognition/affiliation should be permissible within the Act under which the said University is established.
9. It is not in dispute that Section 7 of the Pondicherry University Act, 1985 deals with jurisdiction of the first respondent University, which reads as follows:
7.(1) The jurisdiction of the University shall extend to the whole of the Union territory of Pondicherry:
Provided that the University may, at the request of the Administrator of the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar islands or of the Union territory of Lakshadweep and with the prior approval of the Central Government, extend its jurisdiction to those Territories.
(2) No college or institution situated within the local limits of the jurisdiction of the University shall be compulsorily affiliated to the University, and affiliation shall be granted by the University only to such colleges or institutions as may agree to accept the Statutes and Ordinances.
(3) Any college or institution admitted to the privileges of the University shall cease to be associated with, or be admitted to the privileges of, any other University.
(4) No college or institution within the local limits of the jurisdiction of the University, but not admitted to its privileges, shall be associated with, or be admitted to the privileges of, any other University except with the previous approval of the Administrator of the Union Territory in which such college or institution is situated.
The said Section says that the University may extend its jurisdiction to the whole of the Union Territory of Pondicherry and also, at the request of the Administrator, to the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar islands or of the Union Territory of Lakshadweep with prior approval of the Central Government. It is also not in dispute that the appellant's institution is not located within the territorial jurisdiction of the first respondent University as it is located in the District which is part of Tamil Nadu. Therefore, by virtue of Section 10(A) of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004 as amended on 29.03.2006 read with Section 7 of the Pondicherry University Act, 1985, the request for affiliation for the subsequent years was rightly rejected by the first respondent University. The learned Judge has considered in detail about the above stated position of law and dismissed the writ petition however, by granting liberty to the petitioner/appellant herein to seek affiliation from Manonmanian Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, under whose territorial jurisdiction the appellant's College comes. Without resorting to such procedure, the appellant is trying to seek affiliation to the College from the first respondent which cannot be permitted in view of the above stated position of law. It is further to be noted that the college was not granted permanent affiliation or recognition and what was originally granted was only a temporary recognition for granting temporary affiliation for three academic years commencing from 2005-06. Since the students have been admitted for the three years course of B.Com (Foreign Trade) course, the University thought fit to grant affiliation for those three years. That does not mean that the University is bound to continue the grant of affiliation to the appellant's college for subsequent years also inspite of the statutory prohibition under section 10A of the the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004 and Section 7 of the Pondicherry University Act, 1985. It is well settled position of law that Courts are not expected to pass any order contrary to statutory provisions. Considering all these facts, circumstances and position of law as discussed, the learned Single Judge is justified in dismissing the writ petition. We find no merits in this writ appeal. Hence, this writ appeal is dismissed. No costs.
(N.P.V.,J) (K.R.C.B,.J) 25.08.2014
Index:Yes/No
Internet:Yes/No
Vri
To
1.The Vice Chanceller,
Pondicherry University,
Puducherry.
2.The Pondicherry (Central) University,
Rep. By the Register,
PondicherryUniversity,
Puducherry.
3.The Assistant Registrar (Aca-2),
Pondicherry University,
Puducherry.
4.The Deputy Registrar (Aca-1),
Pondicherry University,
Puducherry.
5.The Controller of Examination,
(ACA-1), Pondicherry University,
Puducherry.
N.PAUL VASANTHAKUMAR,J.
AND
K.RAVICHANDRABAABU,J.
Vri
Pre-Delivery Judgment in W.A.No.2224 of 2012
Dated:- 25.08.2014