R.A.S. College Of Education vs National Council For Teacher Education & Anr

,,,,

Gita Mittal, J",,,,

The writ petitioner, an educational institution, was desirous of commencement of the B.Ed. Course in the year 2006 for which prior recognition is",,,,

required from the National Council of Teachers Education (respondent no. 1 â€" hereafter ‘NCTE’) which exercises jurisdiction under the,,,,

National Council for Teacher Education Act, 1993 (hereafter the ‘NCTE Act’).",,,,

The manner in which an application for grant of recognition is processed, had been stipulated by the respondent in the National Council for Teacher",,,,

Education (Recognition, Norms and Procedure) Regulation, 2006 (NCTE Regulations, 2006 hereafter), which stands amended subsequently.",,,,

It appears that Sh. Dharam Singh, President of the petitioner society was the owner in possession of land admeasuring 25 kanal 10 marla in Village",,,,

Khatiwas (Gogjaka) District Mewat, Haryana. The writ petitioner has submitted that as per the NCTE Regulation, 2006, any society having ownership",,,,

of the land or having leasehold rights thereon for a period of 30 years or more, either from a private party or from the Government, was eligible to",,,,

apply for seeking recognition. Sh. Dharam Singh had, vide a registered lease deed dated 25th May, 2007, leased the said land to the Petitioner society",,,,

for a period of 30 years.,,,,

Premised on these leasehold rights, the writ petitioner submitted an application with the Northern Regional Committee (NRC) of the NCTE in the",,,,

year 2006 seeking recognition, for commencement of the B.Ed. Course from the Academic Session 2008-09. Vide an order dated 22nd February,",,,,

2008, the petitioner was actually granted recognition, in accordance with law.",,,,

On 30th December, 2012, the petitioner submitted a fresh application with the NRC, this time seeking recognition to commence a Diploma in",,,,

Elementary Education Course (D.El.Ed. course hereafter) in the very premises in which the petitioner stood granted recognition for the B.Ed. Course.,,,,

It appears that a ban stood imposed by the Government of Haryana at this stage with regard to opening of new educational institutions in the State.,,,,

Based on this prohibition, on the 11th of September, 2013, the NRC rejected the petitioner’s application for commencement of the D.El.Ed.",,,,

Course.,,,,

The writ petitioner challenged this decision of the NRC by way of W.P.(C) 7837/2013 which came to be allowed by this court by an order dated,,,,

24th November, 2014. The petitioner’s application was thereby remanded to the NRC for consideration afresh.",,,,

Before the matter could be considered afresh by the NRC, it appears that amendments were effected to the Regulation and the NCTE Regulations,",,,,

2014 came to be notified whereby the respondents had excluded eligibility of an educational institution to run the courses on land in which it had only,,,,

leasehold rights from private persons.,,,,

In this regard, we may extract Regulation 8(4) of the NCTE Regulation, 2014 which reads as follows:",,,,

“8. Conditions for grant of recognitions,,,,

(4) xxx xxx xxx,,,,

(i) No institution shall be granted recognition under these regulations unless the institution or society sponsoring the institution is in,,,,

possession of required land on the date of application. The land free from all encumbrances could be either on ownership basis or on lease,,,,

from all Government or Government institutions for a period of not less than thirty years. In cases where under relevant State or Union,,,,

Territory laws the maximum permissible lease period is less than thirty years, the State Government or Union territory administration law",,,,

shall prevail and in any case no building shall be taken on lease for running any teacher training programe,,,,

(ii) The society sponsoring the institution shall have to ensure that proposed teacher education institution has a well demarcated land area,,,,

as specified by the norms.,,,,

(iii) The society sponsoring the institution shall be required to transfer the vest and title of the land and building in the name of the institution,,,,

within a period of six months from the date of issue of formal recognition order under sub-regulation (16) of regulation 7. However, in case,",,,,

the society fails to do so due to local laws or rules or bye-laws, it shall intimate in writing with documentary evidence of it inability to do so.",,,,

The Regional Office shall keep this information on record and place it before the Regional Committee for its approval.â€​,,,,

(Emphasis supplied),,,,

In order to obviate an objection which could be raised on the pending application of the writ petitioner, Sh. Dharam Singh, president of the society",,,,

transferred the land in question absolutely in favour of the writ petitioner by way of a registered sale deed on 11th February, 2015.",,,,

Inasmuch as the pending application had relied on the lease deed which was not acceptable under the Amended Regulations of 2014, a notice to",,,,

show cause dated 4th September, 2015 was issued by it to the petitioner inter alia on the following ground :",,,,

“The institute has submitted pho copy of land document on lease basis which is not acceptable as per Regulations, 2014â€​",,,,

It was only in its reply dated 5th October, 2015 that the petitioner submitted the copy of the sale deed dated 11th February, 2015 and informed the",,,,

NRC that even the requirement of the afore extracted amended Regulation 8(4) stood satisfied.,,,,

Unfortunately, by the order dated 30th December, 2015, the NRC once again rejected the application of the petitioner again ostensibly on the",,,,

ground of the ban imposed by the State of Haryana with regard to opening of new educational institutions. The writ petitioner contends that no,,,,

objection was taken with regard to the ownership rights of the petitioner under the land and consequently, it has to be presumed that the NRC had",,,,

accepted the validity of the petitioner’s title so far as the requirement of ownership of the land was concerned.,,,,

The petitioner was compelled to assail the order of the 30th of December, 2015 by way of an appeal before the NCTE. This appeal was allowed",,,,

by an order dated 18th April, 2016 and the matter was once again remanded to the NRC with a direction to decide the petitioner’s application as",,,,

per the NCTE Regulations.,,,,

112,NRCAP P-6867,"R A S College of

Education, Plot

No.- 103,37,9,2/1,3

1, Village

Khatiwas, Post

officeTuru,

Tehsil/Taluka -

Tauru,

Town/CityTauru,

Distt.- Mewat,

Haryama122105",D.El.Ed.,"The original file of

the institution

alongwith other

related documents,

NCTE Act,1 993

Regulations and

Guidelines of

NCTE published

from time to time

w e r e carefully

considered by NRC

and following

observations were

made:-

· Land has been

registered in the

name of the

applicant Society

on 11.02.2015 i.e.

after the date of

making application

online Hence show

cause notice under

Section u/s

14/15(3) (b) of the

NCTE Act, 1993 b

issued to the

institution to submit

reply within 30

days from the date

of issue of show

cause notice.

S.No.,Case Number,Case Title,Date of Decision,

1.,W.P.(C).No. 4049/2010,"G.D.Memorial College

of Education v. National

Council for Teacher

Education & Anr.","13th July, 2010",

2.,W.P.(C) 1773/2010,"Fairfiel Institute of

Management and

Technology v. National

Council for Teacher

Education and Anr.","12th August, 2010",

3.,W.P.(C). 5621/2010,"B alaj i College of

Education v. National

Council for Teacher

Education and Anr.","18th August, 2010",

4.,W.P.(C) 3647/2015,"R i y a International

College v. National

Council for Teacher

Education",21st April 2015,

5.,W.P.(C) 1829/2016,"SMD Girls College of

Education v. National

Council for Teacher

Education and Anr",2nd March 2016,

6.,W.P.(C) 3328/2016,"Rao Raj Singh College

of Education v. National

Council for Teacher

Education and Anr.",22nd April 2016,