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In the year 2002, the Government of India decided to implement the Technical Education, Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP)/sub-sector development programme for improving the quality of technical education in India. A substantial amount in form of loan of Rs.Five thousand crore was made available from World Bank for the said purpose. The project primarily aimed at making India a developed and confident nation by producing world class engineers through qualitative changes in the technical education system. The Ministry of Human Resources and Development undertook the process of selecting various engineering colleges and polytechnics for the said purpose and it set out certain criteria and it was held out that the institutes fulfilling the said criteria Tilak will be entitled for a substantial financial support of Rs.50 crore for the lead institute, Rs.10 crore for a network institute and Rs.Five Crore for the lead polytechnic. It was expected that the engineering colleges, by implementation of the said programme would be brought on par with the IITs. The said Government Resolution identified three engineering colleges in the State and eight polytechnic colleges for being conferred with the said privilege. The list of engineering colleges included the petitioner college i.e. Government College of Engineering, Pune.

13 The Government of India decided to implement the TEQIP (Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme) for improving the quality of technical education and a loan was made available by the World Bank for the said purpose. The said project envisioned making India a developed and confident nation by producing world class Engineers through qualitative Tilak changes in technical education system. The Ministry of Human Resources Development undertook the task of selecting the Engineering Colleges and Polytechnics under the said Programme and it set out bench-mark to select the Institutes who were held to be eligible for financial support of Rs.50 crores in case of an engineering college and Rs.10 crores for a network institute. The object of implementing the said programme was to bring the engineering colleges on par with the IITs. It was proposed that this could be achieved only if the Institute was conferred with complete autonomy.

Resultantly, the Government of Maharashtra appointed an Expert Committee under the Chairmanship of Shri F.C. Kohli, Vice Chairman of Tata Consultancy Services for according total autonomous status to engineering colleges. The autonomy which was sought to be conferred was held to be directed to three areas i.e. academic, administrative, financial and managerial autonomy. The State Government by issuing a Resolution on 19th July 2002 accorded its approval to implement the Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (for short "TEQIP") in the Engineering colleges and Tilak Polytechnics in the State of Maharashtra subject to the three major stipulations i.e. "No transfer of Government property will be allowed. Centralized Admission process will apply. Currently available benefits to the socially backward class will continue.

The Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016 defines 'Autonomy' as under :

Tilak "Autonomy means a privilege of the university conferred by the statutes to permit a college, institution or a university department to conduct academic programmes and examinations, develop syllabus for the respective subjects and issue certificates of passing the examinations, The petitioner institution stakes a claim that it is conferred autonomy by the Department of Higher and Technical Education vide its resolution dated 19 th July 2002 in order to implement the technical education, quality improvement programme for improving the quality of technical education in India. Perusal of the said Government Resolution reveals that approval was given by the said Resolution to implement the TEQIP Programme in the Engineering Colleges and Polytechnics in the State of Maharashtra to enhance the quality of technical education and the so-called 'autonomy' was conferred subject to certain stipulations which included the stipulation of permitting the institutions to function as total autonomous institution on formation of the Board of Governors and obtaining academic autonomy. Under the Scheme of the Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994, a University Department or Institution, affiliated College or recognized institution is entitled to apply to the Tilak University for grant of autonomous status and the management council on recommendation of the academic council may confer such an autonomous status. On such an autonomy being conferred, the institutional college is empowered to constitute its authorities or bodies and exercise the powers and perform the function and carry out the administrative, academic, financial and other activities of the University as prescribed. It is also empowered to prescribe its own courses of studies, evolve its own teaching methods and hold examinations and tests for students receiving instructions and award degrees or certificates of its own. The Autonomy contemplated under Section 89 of the Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994 permit the functioning of the institution with the objective of promoting the academic freedom and scholarship on part of teachers and students which are essential to the fostering and development of an intellectual climate conducive to the pursuit of scholarship and excellence. The petitioner institution is not conferred with such an autonomy as contemplated under Section 89 by the University. Perusal of the said Government Resolution confers autonomy on the institution in the field of Tilak administration, academic matters and financial matters. The autonomy in academic matters permitted the engineering colleges to decide or change the curriculum, course structure, examination system, conduct of examination etc. The administrative autonomy enabled the COEP to recruit the teachers and other employees in accordance with the rules framed by them and the new appointees appointed after the commencement of new governance are to be treated as the employees of institutions and not employees of the government, resultantly, the pension and provident fund schemes of the Government is not applicable to them. The financial autonomy permitted the CoEP to increase and retain the tuition fees and only expenditure on salaries was to be borne by the State Government whereas the non-salary and other expenditure was to be catered to from the tuition fees and other resources. The Government Resolution dated 31st March 2004 contemplated that while granting complete autonomy, managerial and administrative changes are to be effected as per guidelines issued by the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India. It contemplated constitution of Board of Tilak Governors with a tenure of 5 years to its members and the functioning of the institution was to be carried forth through the Board of Governors. As far as service conditions of the regular teaching and non-teaching employees who had entered the service of the institute, prior to the issuance of resolution, through the Society continued to be the employees of the Government, whereas those appointed after, would be the employees of the Society and governed by the service conditions stipulated by the Society. The emphasis in both the Government Resolutions in conferring the autonomy in academic, administrative and financial matters was to improve the academic standards and to advance excellence and perfection in the field of technical education. In any contingency, the autonomy surely did not confer a licence for mal-administration so as to defeat the avowed purpose i.e. to achieve excellence in the field of technical education. The whole purpose to implement the TEQIP and conferring autonomy on the petitioner institute was to enhance the quality of technical education in the state and this could have been achieved by conferring certain powers on the Institute to be Tilak exercised by it independently in administrative academic and financial areas. However, while granting autonomy, the State Government had imposed a condition of continuing the currently available benefits to the socially backward class. This implicitly brought within its fold the application of the policy of reservation being implemented by the State Government and made it imperative for the institution to follow the roster point while effecting the appointments. The petitioner college being a college imparting technical education is also subjected to the supreme body under the AICTE Act. The object of AICTE is that it has prescribed the educational qualifications to be possessed by those imparting education in the technical colleges and the petitioner institute was duty bound to adhere to the said norms of AICTE. The object of prescribing the educational qualifications is to maintain uniformity in the field of technical education and in prescribing the said qualification, it cannot be said that there is any interference with its autonomy but that is a step by which excellence and efficiency can be attained. The petitioner college has made an attempt to follow the pattern of IITs and it is attempted to canvass before us that the Tilak mechanism which is made applicable to IIT was followed by it i.e. the rolling advertisement. The appointments effected by the petitioner college did not adhere to the educational qualification prescribed by the AICTE and the Meshram Committee Report focuses on the qualification criteria, the age criteria, the experience criteria, being not adhered to. The lacunae pointed out by the Meshram Committee are gross and the justification offered by the College did not find favour with the Committee since it noted that the AICTE norms could not have been deviated and the essential qualifications could not have been relaxed and the mandate of possessing of qualifications should have been ensured at the time of effecting the appointment itself. The insistence of the State Government on adhering to the norms prescribed by AICTE cannot be said to be an interference in autonomy of the institution and what is only done by the State Government is bringing it to the notice of the institution that they have not followed the norms prescribed by AICTE and that they have not adhered to the reservation policy made applicable in the State. This, in our considered opinion, cannot amount to tinkering with the Tilak autonomy of the petitioner institution since the autonomy implies governance in accordance with the existing law and rules. The autonomy contemplated by the State Government would not confer a right to malfunction or to function de hors the norms prescribed by the AICTE or the Statutes framed under the Maharashtra Universities Act 1994 regarding the grant of autonomous status to the affiliated colleges/recognized institutions/Universities and University institution. The said statutes recognizes the autonomy being conferred on the institution on account of phenomenal growth of higher education where the affiliating system does not allow required freedom to the colleges to meet the demand cast on them. The statute being framed in the backdrop of existence of large number of affiliated colleges in the Universities and in view of the acknowledged fact that it has become a drag on the process of modernization and improvement of standards because of the compulsion to prescribe identical curriculum, teaching system and examination system for affiliated colleges and the compulsion to set standards which are attainable even by the weak colleges, the prescription of the Universities tends to keep Tilak the standards low and in this scenario, the colleges which have the potential to implement higher standards do not have the freedom to do so. Resultantly, the said Statute permits conferment of autonomy to the following effect :