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Judgment
Mohammad Rafiq
This special appeal seeks to challenge order dated 18.08.2018 passed by learned Single Judge of this Court, whereby prayer of the appellant-writ
petitioner for staying operation and effect of the e-mail/letter dated 14.08.2018 issued by Respondent No. 4 (Annexure-12 of writ petition) and
permitting the appellant to run the course of Diploma in Pharmacy for Academic Session 2018-19, has been declined and S. B. Civil Misc. Stay
Application No. 14813/2018 filed by the appellant along with S. B. Civil Writ Petition No. 18385/2018 has been dismissed.
Mr. S.S. Hora, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant-Global College of Pharmacy submitted that the appellant moved an application
before respondent-State Government for grant of No Objection Certificate (for short ‘NOC’) for starting new course of Diploma in Pharmacy
on 21.08.2017. The appellant also applied for affiliation to Rajasthan University of Health Sciences (for short ‘RUHS’) on 29.12.2017 for
Academic Session 2018-19 and deposited affiliation fees and annual fees. The appellant also applied to Pharmacy Council of India for grant of
approval to start Diploma Course in Pharmacy. However, the Registrar, Pharmacy Council of India issued a letter to the appellant informing about
the decision of 284th EC (January, 2018) of the Pharmacy Council of India dated 19.01.2018 whereby approval was granted to the appellant to
conduct Diploma Course in Pharmacy. The appellant also moved an application before All India Council for Technical Education (for short
‘AICTE’) sometime in January, 2018, seeking approval to start Diploma Course in Pharmacy from Academic Session 2018-19, but the Letter
of Approval was belatedly issued to the appellant on 30.04.2018 to conduct Diploma Course in Pharmacy with intake of 60 students for Academic
Session 2018-19. The State Government issued Letter of Intent to the appellant-college on 29.05.2018. RUHS required the appellant to deposit
late fees which was deposited by the appellant on 31.05.2018. Thereafter, RUHS constituted an inspection team to inspect the college on
08.06.2018. The inspection team inspected the college on 18-19th June, 2018.
Three deficiencies were pointed out by the inspection team on 17.07.2018. The appellant-college removed all the three deficiencies on 18.07.2018.Â
Learned counsel argued that name of the appellant-college was sent for counseling to the Pharmacy Counseling Board on 27.07.2018 with intake of
60 seats in the tentative seat matrix and 11 students were also allotted to the appellant between 03.08.2018 to 07.08.2018. These students were to
join by 10.08.2018 and thereafter unfilled seats were to be filled in by the appellant up to 15.08.2018 through management quota. However, the
State Government surprisingly vide letter dated 08.08.2018 issued NOC to the appellant-college for Academic Sessions 2019-20 instead of 2018-19.Â
The appellant made representation to the Principal Secretary, Medical Education Department, State of Rajasthan, Jaipur on 10.08.2018. However, the
appellant was surprised to receive an e-mail from Pharmacy Counseling Board at 4.14 P.M. on 14.08.2018 revoking permission for Academic Session
2018-19 on the ground that it received letter dated 13.08.2018 from RUHS that State Government has issued NOC for Academic Session 2019-20
and not for 2018-19. According to the appellant, it had given admission to 51 students by then and four of them were those who had joined through
counseling conducted by Pharmacy Counseling Board. The appellant then filed writ petition before this Court on 16.08.2018, but the learned Single
Judge vide order dated 18.08.2018 dismissed the stay application filed by the appellant along with the writ petition.Â
Learned counsel submitted that NOC of the State Government may not be necessary once the appellant-college has been granted approval by AICTE
and affiliation by RUHS with the name of the appellant being included in the counseling by the Pharmacy Counseling Board. Since Pharmacy
Council of India accorded approval to the appellant on 19.01.2018 and AICTE accorded approval to the appellant for the Academic Session 2018-19
on 30.04.2018, therefore, the State Government was wholly unjustified in not granting NOC to the appellant for Academic Session 2018-19. Learned
counsel in support of this argument relied on the judgments of the Supreme Court in State of Maharashtra Vs. Sant Dnyaneshwar Shikshan Shastra
Mahavidyalaya & Others, (2006) 9 SCC 1 and Jaya Gokul Educational Trust Vs. Commissioner & Secretary to Government Higher Education
Department, Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala, (2000) 5 SCC 231, and submitted that NOC by the State Government was therefore wholly unnecessary.
Mr. S.K. Gupta, learned Additional Advocate General appearing on behalf of the respondents-State and Mr. Dinesh Yadav, learned counsel appearing
on behalf of RUHS opposed the special appeal and submitted that the appellant-college in the present case was granted approval by Pharmacy
Council of India on 19.01.2018 and by AICTE on 30.04.2018. Taking note of the delay aforesaid, the State Government has issued NOC in favour of
the appellant-college vide order dated 08.08.2018 for Academic Session 2019-20 and not for Academic Session 2018-19. Learned Additional
Advocate General, in this connection, referred to observations made by the Supreme Court in Parshvanath Charitable Trust & Others Vs. All India
Council for Technical Education & Others, (2013) 3 SCC 385, especially to para 41, according to which first round of counseling/admission for
allotment of seats has to be completed on or before 30th June; second round of counseling/admission has to be completed on or before 10th July and
last round of counseling has to be completed on or before 20th July; last date for admitting candidates in seats other than allotted above shall be 30th
July. Academic session has to commence from 1st August; last date up to which students can be admitted against vacancies arising due to any
reason has been indicated to be 15th August with clear stipulation that no student should be admitted in any institution after the last date under any
quota. In that very time schedule, last date for granting or refusing approval by AICTE has been indicated to be 10th April and last date for granting
or refusing approval by University/State Government has been fixed as 15th May. This has been further reiterated by the Supreme Court in Para 42
of the Report by specifically observing that all the seats should be filled positively by 15th August, after which there shall be no admission, whatever
be the reason or ground. Since both the aforesaid dates had gone by, the State Government was fully justified in granting NOC to the appellant-
college for Academic Session 2019-20. Mr. Dinesh Yadav, learned counsel appearing on behalf of RUHS submitted that students allotted to the
appellant-college have been shifted to other institutions.
The appellant in this case applied to Pharmacy Council of India and approval was granted to the appellant on 19.01.2018 to conduct Diploma Course
in Pharmacy. The appellant applied to AICTE for approval in January, 2018 to start Diploma Course in Pharmacy for Academic Session 2018-19
and the Letter of approval was issued by the AICTE to the appellant on 30.04.2018 with somewhat delay with intake of 60 students. On the basis
of deposit of late fees on 31.05.2018, RUHS sent its inspection team which inspected college of the appellant on 18-19.06.2018. Three deficiencies
were pointed out by the inspection team of RUHS to the appellant on 17.07.2018 which were removed by the appellant on 18.07.2018. It is
thereafter that name of the appellant college was included in the counseling on 27.07.2018 by the RUHS. Name of the appellant-college has already
been included in the tentative seat matrix by the Pharmacy Counseling Board and the students had been allotted to it, though only 11 in number, with
liberty to admit remaining students on its own up to 15.08.2018. According to the appellant it filled all the seats up to 15.08.2018. Having regard
to all these facts, learned Single Judge, in our view, was not justified in not passing interim order in favour of the appellantcollege, as case of the
appellant-college was distinguishable from the case of other institute namely Dhattarwal Education Society and Bhartiya Shikshan and Vikas Samiti.
In view of above, present special appeal deserves to succeed and is accordingly allowed. It is directed that the students allotted to the appellant-
college and admitted by it up to 15.08.2018 may be permitted to continue to study with the appellant-college provided list of all such students is
immediately sent by the appellant to RUHS by 6th September, 2018 by e-mail followed by hard copy containing the same names sent on the same
day. No new name shall thereafter be entertained by RUHS. All the admissions shall be subject to final outcome of the writ petition filed by the
appellant. However, learned Single Judge is requested to decide the writ petition expeditiously. Writ petition is ordered to be listed before the
regular Single Bench on 12.09.2018. Â
Stay Application No. 15408/2018 stands disposed of.