Smt. Jyanki Devi Teacher Training College vs State Of Rajasthan And Ors

This application has been filed by the applicant-State of Rajasthan inter alia with the prayer that calendar/schedule fixed by this Court vide order dated

02.09.2016 in Smt. Jyanki Devi Teacher Training College Vs. The State of Rajasthan & Others (D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 6237/2014) may be

modified, so as to extend the date for conveying list of institutions with number of seats to the Coordinator of Admissions-from 30th March to 9th July,

2019; for declaration of result of admission test-from 25th May to 31st May, 2019; last date of counselling-from 30th July to 30th August, 2019;

commencement of academic session-from 1st August to 2nd September, 2019; end of academic session-from 7th May to 20th May, 2020, so as to

ensure completion of 200 working days as per the NCTE Regulations, 2014; completion of annual examination-from 30th May to 30th June, 2020 and

declaration of result of annual examination-from 7th July to 30th July, 2020.

Dr. Vibhuti Bhushan Sharma, learned Additional Advocate General, appearing on behalf of the applicant-State of Rajasthan, submitted that this Court

vide order dated 02.09.2016 had fixed time schedule/calendar of activities for B.Ed. Academic Programme and directed that all the three agencies i.e.

State of Rajasthan, NCTE and University of Rajasthan shall follow such calendar strictly without any deviation and violation. In the schedule/calendar,

the deadline for obtaining no objection certificate (NOC) from the State Government by the B.Ed. colleges was fixed as 30th March of every

academic session. Since the Model Code of Conduct for Parliamentary Elections came into force in the State of Rajasthan on 10th March, 2019, the

State Government vide letter dated 13.03.2019, by way of abundant caution, wrote to the Election Commission for their permission citing the

aforenoted order of this Court. The Election Commission vide letter dated 19.04.2019 granted permission to the State Government to proceed further

in the matter, which letter was received by the department concerned on 26.04.2019 but by that time, the relevant date, i.e. 30.03.2019 had already

passed away. The State Government could not process and grant NOC to Institutions, which applied for starting B.Ed. course for the academic

session 2019-20. Faced with this situation, the State Government filed an application on 28.05.2019 seeking extension of deadline for granting NOC till

17.06.2019. However, this Court was closed for summer vacations in the month of June, 2019, the application could not be taken up for appropriate

orders. Therefore, this application has been filed afresh.

Mr. M.S. Raghav, learned counsel for the non-applicantoriginal writ petitioner submitted that the Supreme Court vide order dated 11.06.2019 passed in

Gomi Devi Women Teachers Training College Vs. National Council for Teacher Education & Another (Writ Petition (C) No. 541 of 2019), taking

note of the fact that the session has yet not commenced, extended the date for grant of recognition fixed by it in Maa Vaishno Devi Mahila

Mahavidyalaya Vs. State of Uttar Pradesh & Others, (2013) 2 SCC 61 7by two weeks. The Supreme Court later vide order dated 17.06.2019 passed

in Choudhary Teachers Training College Vs. National Council for Teacher Education & Others (Writ Petition (C) No. 764/2019) relying upon the

above order, also extended the cut off date for grant of recognition and affiliation upto 30.06.2019.

Perusal of order passed in Gomi Devi Women Teachers Training College (supra) indicates that the Supreme Court, taking note of the fact that the

session has not yet commenced and in case of all institutions, the counselling which commenced in June was to continue till July/August, extended the

cut off date i.e. 03.03.2019 fixed in Maa Vaishno Devi Mahila Mahavidyalaya (supra) by two weeks with direction to NCTE to decide the request for

recognition for the year 2019-20 within one week. It was further directed that the decision with regard to recognition for the year 2019-20 was to be

taken by NCTE taking into account relevant factors.

As per the calendar/schedule fixed by this Court vide order dated 02.09.2016 and finalised vide order dated 09.09.2016. According thereto, the State

Government is required to give its recommendations on the basis of its policy on applications sent by the NRC-NCTE without carrying out any

inspection for verification of infrastructure/qualification of teachers latest by 30th September. The appointment of Nodal Agency / Coordinating

agency (University) for entrance examination by the State Government has to be done by 15th December. Applications for renewal were to be

submitted by the existing institutions without late fees by 31st December and with late fee by 15th January. NCTE was then mandated to grant

recognition to new colleges as per Regulation 7 and 8 on the basis of recommendation and policy of the State Government by 3rd March. It is in that

sequence that the institutions were required to submit applications to the University for new affiliation by 10th March. Thereafter, the State

Government was required to issue NOC/list of colleges (with seats) for affiliating universities and coordinating agencies for admission by 30th March.

The admission agency/affiliating university was then required to prescribe schedule or academic calendar in respect of each programme, at least three

months in advance, of the commencement of each academic sessions which should happen latest by 1st May. The affiliating University was to take a

decision on application for affiliation and issuance of affiliation letter to eligible institutions upto 10th May. Thereafter, the affiliating university was

required to convey list of affiliated colleges with number of seats for each course to admission agency and NRC-NCTE by 15th May. Entrance test

for B.Ed. Programmes was required to be conducted by 15th May and declaration of result thereof was to be made by 25th May. It can be noticed

from the aforenoted schedule/calendar that the State Government has been given sufficient time to deal with the present matter. At Serial No. 9 of the

calendar/schedule, the institutions have been required to submit applications for new affiliation to the University by 10th March. Serial No.10 provides

for submission of recognition letters received by the institutions to State Government by 10th March. Vide Serial No. 11, State Government is required

to issue NOC/list of colleges with seats for affiliating universities and coordinating agency by 30th March.

Aforediscussed calendar/schedule was finalised after taking into consideration the suggestions and providing opportunity of hearing to all the

stakeholders namely; State Government; NCTE and the University of Rajasthan. In spite of that, the State Government, in respect of previous year,

filed an application on which his Court vide order dated 03.08.2018 extended the last date of admission upto 16.08.2018 but thereafter rejected further

application filed by the original writpetitioner Smt. Jyanki Devi Teacher Training College for further extending the date vide order dated 12.09.2018

passed in D.B. Civil Misc. Application No. 357/2018.

A large number of writ petitions are filed before this Court every year, where the State Government despite grant of letter of recognition by NRC-

NCTE does not deal with the applications of new Institutions and act promptly so as to convey its decision. This Court is not inclined to countenance

the argument advanced by learned Additional Advocate General that the Election Commissioner would not abide by order of this Court, laying down

the calendar/schedule of B.Ed. Programme. Even otherwise, when the Election Commission vide its letter dated 19.04.2018, which was received by

the applicant on 26.04.2018, had already granted permission to the applicant to proceed further in the matter, why this Court was not approached by

the concerned state authorities immediately. Contention that application seeking relaxation in calendar/schedule was for the first time filed on

28.05.2019 shows that such application was filed before this Court 1½ months after receipt of letter dated 19.04.2019 of the Election Commission on

26.04.2019. This substantiates the allegation made in many of the petitions that State Government does not attach any sense of urgency and does not

act with required promptitude on the applications of the Institutions and the references received from the NCTE for grant of NOC.

When the present matter was taken up by the Court in morning session, we required learned Additional Advocate General to file undertaking on the

affidavit of the Secretary of the Department concerned that in future, calendar/schedule fixed by this Court shall be strictly adhered to. In compliance

of that, the applicant-State has filed an undertaking on the affidavit of Mr. Pradeep Kumar Borar, IAS, Commissioner cum Special Secretary, Higher

Education Department, Government of Rajasthan that the State Government would strictly adhere to the abovenoted calendar/schedule in upcoming

years.

Having heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the material on record, this Court finds that in the first place, the applicant-State was not

required to seek any permission from the Election Commission to follow the calendar/schedule fixed by the Supreme Court and modified by this Court.

Even if by way of abundant caution, letter was sent to the Election Commission on 13.03.2019, the state authorities were required to follow up the

matter with the Election Commission within a week or so, as the last date for conveying the list i.e. 30th March was approaching fast. Curiously, they

did not act promptly and did not pursue the matter with the Election Commission and waited till 26.04.2019 when letter dated 19.04.2019 issued by the

Election Commission was received by them. It shows the callous and lackadaisical approach on the part of the applicant-state authorities. Even then,

this Court is persuaded to partly allow the application, however, on payment of cost, in respect of certain events.

In view of above, prayer made by the applicant for extending last date for conveying list of institutions with number of seats to the Coordinator is

accepted and such date is extended from 30th March to 15h July, 2019 but the last date for counselling, which was originally fixed in Serial No. 18 of

the calendar/schedule incorporated in amended prayer clause of the application as 30th July is extended only upto 10th August, 2019 as one time

measure.

Commencement of academic session, which was originally fixed as 1 st August, is now rescheduled to 19th August, so as to ensure completion of 200

working days. Since requisite 200 working days, as per own showing of the applicant, can be completed before 7th May, the date indicated in Serial

No. 20 for end of academic session and 30th May as the date for completion of annual examination in Serial No. 21 and 7th July as the date for

declaration of result of annual examination in Serial No. 22, as per the original programme, need not be changed. Prayer of the State Government to

that extent is declined. Considering, negligent behaviour on the part of the applicant-state authorities, the extension of the time schedule would be

subject to deposit of cost of Rs. 50,000/- (Rupees Fifty Thousands only) by the applicant with Rajasthan State Legal Services Authority, Rajasthan

High Court, Jaipur Bench within a period of one month. It shall be open for the applicant-State to recover the aforesaid amount of cost from the erring

official concerned.

With the aforesaid directions, application stands partly allowed.

Application No. 1/2019 also stands disposed of.