Avinashi Gounder Mariammal Trust v. The Secretary to Government

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRASDATED 26.4.2007CORAMTHE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE N.PAUL VASANTHAKUMARW.P.No.13470 of 2007Avinashi Gounder Mariammal Trust,Rep. by its Secretary,Dr.A.SengottaiahGandhiji Street, Karur Bye Pass Road,Kollampalayam, Erode & District-638 002. .. Petitionervs1.The Secretary to Government, School Education Department, Government Of Tamil Nadu, Fort St.George, Chennai-600 009.2.The Director of Teacher Education, Research & Training, D.P.I.Campus, Nungambakkam, Chennai-600 006.3.The Regional Director, National Council for Teacher Education, Southern Regional Committee, First Floor, C.S.D.Complex, H.M.T.Township, Bangalore-31. .. Respondents This petition is filed for the issuance of a writ of mandamusdirecting the third respondent to complete the process of thepetitioner's application dated 25.10.2006 including causing ofinspection for grant of recognition without insisting no objectioncertificate from the State Government and pass orders, grantingrecognition for conducting D.T.Ed., Course at the petitioner'sinstitute namely Mariammal Teacher Training Institute for Women atKollampalayam, Erode & District – 638 002 from the academic year2007-2008. https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/hcservices/ For Petitioner ... Mr.R.Suresh KumarFor R3... Mr.S.UdayakumarFor R1 and R2 ... Mr.A.Arumugam Additional Government PleaderORDERThe prayer in the writ petition is to issue a writ of mandamusdirecting the third respondent to complete the process of thepetitioner's application dated 25.10.2006 including causing ofinspection for grant of recognition without insisting no objectioncertificate from the State Government and pass orders, grantingrecognition for conducting D.T.Ed., Course at the petitioner'sinstitute namely Mariammal Teacher Training Institute for Women atKollampalayam, Erode & District – 638 002 from the academic year2007-2008.2.The petitioner already having B.Ed., College and applied forrecognition to conduct Diploma in Teacher Education Course for Womenin the same locality and an application for recognition was alsosubmitted to the third respondent on 25.10.2006 in the prescribedformat for the academic year 2007-2008. The said application is notprocessed, even though, the third respondent herein, issuedregulations in 2005 prescribing time limit to process theapplication, cause inspection and for passing orders in regulationNO.7, which came into force on 13.01.2006. Regulation 7 isued by theNCTE reads as follows;"7.Processing of applications(1)Applications which are complete in allrespects shall be processed by the office of theRegional Committee concerned within 30 days ofreceipt of the such applications.(2)The applications shall be processed asunder:-(i)The particulars of the institutions shallbe hosted on the official website of the RegionalCommittee concerned of the National Council forTeacher Education.(ii)This will serve as an electroniccommunication to the applicant and also the StateGovernment/UT Administration concerned fornecessary follow up action on their part.(iii)A written communication in additionshall also follow to the applicant.(iv)A written communication alongwith a copyof the application form submitted by theinstitution(s) of the concerned state/U.T. Shall https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/hcservices/ be sent to the State Government/U.T.Administration concerned.(3)On receipt of the communication, theState Government/UT Administration concernedshall furnish its recommendations on theapplications to the office of the RegionalCommittee concerned of the National Council forTeacher Education within 60 days from receipt. Ifthe recommendation is negative, the StateGovernment/UT Administration shall providedetailed reasons/grounds thereof, which could betaken into consideration by the Rgional Committeeconcerned while deciding the application. If nocommunication is received from the StateGovernment/UT Administration within thestipulated 60 days, it shall be presumed that theState Government/UT Administration concerned hasno recommendation to make.(4)Though normally the applicantinstitutions will ensure submission ofapplications complete in all respects, in orderto conver the inadvertent omission ofdeficiencies in documents, the office of theRegional Committee shall point out the diffencieswithin 30 days of receipt of the applications,which the applicants shall remove within 90 days.The date of receipt of the application aftercompletion of deficiencies shall be treated asthe date of receipt of the application completein all respects within the meaning of Regulation7(1).(5)Ordinarily, the inspection ofinfrastructure, equipment, instructionalfacilities etc. of an institution shall beconducted within 30 days of completion ofprocessing of its application by the office ofthe Regional Committee with a view to assessingthe level of preparedness of the institution tocommence the course. Such inspection shall be inthe chronological order of the date of receipt ofthe completed application in the office of theRegional Committee concerned. Among theapplications received on the same day,alphabetical order shall be followed.(6)All the applicant institutions areexpected to launch their own websitesimultaneously with the submission of theirapplications covering, inter alia, the details ofthe institution, its location, name of the courseapplied for with intake, availability of physical https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/hcservices/ infrastructure (land, building, office,classrooms, and other facilities/amenities),instructional facilities (laboratory, libraryetc.) and the particulars of their proposedteaching and non-teaching staff etc. withphotographs for information of all concerned.(7)At the time of visit of the team ofexperts to an institution, the institutionconcerned shall arrange for the inspection to bevideographed in a manner that all importantfacilities are videographed along withinteraction with the management and the staff (ifavailable). The visiting teams shall finalize andcourier their reports alongwith the video tapeson the same day.(8)The application and the report alongwiththe video tapes of the Visiting Team shall beplaced before the Regional Committee concernedfor consideration of grant of recognition orpermission to an institution in its next meeting.(8)The application and the report alongwiththe video tapes of the Visiting Team shall bepalced before the Regional Committee concernedfor consideration of grant of recognition orpermission to an institution in its next meeting.(9)The Regional Committee shall decide grantof recognition or permission to an institutiononly after satisfying itself that the institutionfulfills all the conditions prescribed by theNCTE under the NCTE Act, Rules or Regulations,including, inter alia, the norms and standardslaid down for the relevant teacher educationprogramme/course.(10)In the matter of grant of recognition;the Regional Committees shall strictly act withinthe ambit of the National Council for TeacherEducation Act, 1993, the National Council forTeacher Education Rules, 1997 as amended fromtime to time and the regulations including thenorms and standards for various teacher educationprogrammes and shall not make any relaxationthereto. The Regional Directors shall beresponsible for ensuring that the decisions ofthe Regional Committees for ensuring that thedecisions of the Regional Committees are not incontravention of the NCTE Act, NCTE Rules andregulations including the norms and standards.(11)The institution concerned shall beinformed of the decision for grant of recognitionor permission subject to appointment of qualified https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/hcservices/ faculty members before the commencement of theacademic session.(12)The institution concerned, afterappointing the requisite faculty/staff, shall putthe information on its official website and alsoformally inform the Regional Committee concerned.The Regional Committee concerned shall then issuea formal unconditional recognition order.(13)In cases where the Regional Committee,after consideration of the report of the VisitingTeam, is of the opinion that the institution doesnot fulfill the requirements forstarting/conducting the course, such an institutewill be allowed one more opportunity forinspection after removal of the deficiencies.For, such inspection the institution concernedshall again deposit a fee of Rs.40,000 to theRegional Committee concerned through a demanddraft from any Nationallized bank drawn in thefavour of the Member Secretary, NCTE payable atthe city where the Regional Committee is located.However, no such fee is required if thedeficiencies pointed out are minor in nature notinvolving civil construction or the like and therectifications are verifiable without physicalinspection.(14)The reports of inspection of theinstitutions along with the names of the VisitingTeam Experts shall be made available on theofficial website of the Regional Committeeconcerned after the same have been considered bythe Regional Committee."3.The grievance of the petitioner is that in spite of the expiryof the time as fixed in the regulation, the application is notprocessed and no inspection is caused.4.The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that in a batchof writ petitions in W.P.Nos.47503 of 2006 etc., dated 03.04.2007,the recognised institutions challenged the cut of date fixed foradmission and also for getting staff approval fixed by theGovernment. This Court upheld the validity of the Government Orderissued in G.O.(2D) NO.59, School Education Department, dated14.11.2006, prescribing 30.11.2006 as the last date for admission ofstudents for the academic year 2006-2007 and the last date forapproval of Faculty members has been extended from 20.11.2006 to09.03.2007 as a special case for academic year 2006-2007. Whiledisposing of the said writ petitions, this Court also directed theState Government to issue a compendium of guidelines, prescribing thecalendar of activities for the Teacher Training Institutes, https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/hcservices/ indicating (i) the date of commencement of the Course, (ii) the cutoff date for approval of staff members, (iii) the cut off date foradmission of students, (iv) the cut off date for holding SingleWindow Counselling, for sponsoring candidates under the GovernmentQuota, (v) the method of recruitment of Teaching Facultyadministrative and technical support staff, (vi) the calendar ofactivities for the academic year including the days of instructionand days of internship, (vii) the schools in which the internshipcould be undergone, (viii)the Schedule for the Examination as well asthe Commission Work and Observation work and (ix) such other matteras required for streamlining the system of Teacher Education in theState. This Court also directed the Government of Tamil Nadu to passorders by suggesting that the institutions should get orders ofrecognition upto a particular date i.e., 31st July or 31st August of ayear. In view of the prescribed time limit for each stage of theTeacher Education Course, the NCTE is also bound to follow the timelimit fixed in regulation No.7.5.The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the if thetime limit as prescribed is not followed and the recognition is notgranted in time, the institution would be put to serious prejudice asthey will not be in a position to get the faculty list approved andthey will not be able to complete the admission process within thestipulated time. In view of the said submissions made by the learnedcounsel for the petitioner and having regard to the statutoryregulations prescribed by the NCTE as stated supra and having regardto the fact that the State Government has prescribed the last datefor admission of students as well as the approval of the facultymembers and in the light of the order passed by this Court in theabove referred batch of writ petitions in W.P.No.47503 of 2006 etc.,dated 03.04.2007, the third respondent is directed to process theapplication of the petitioner dated 25.10.2006 and consider the grantof recognition by causing inspection and pass orders on merits and inaccordance with law within eight weeks from the date of receipt of acopy of this Order.6.The writ petition is ordered with the above direction.No costs. Consequently, connected M.P.No.1 of 2007 is closed.Sd/-Asst. Registrar./true copy/Sub Asst. Registrar. https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/hcservices/ To1.The Secretary to Government, School Education Department, Government Of Tamil Nadu, Fort St.George, Chennai-600 009.2.The Director of Teacher Education, Research & Training, D.P.I.Campus, Nungambakkam, Chennai-600 006.3.The Regional Director, National Council for Teacher Education, Southern Regional Committee, First Floor, C.S.D.Complex, H.M.T.Township, Bangalore-31.+1 CC to MR. R. SURESH KUMAR, Advocate SR No. 28429+1 CC to THE GOVT. PLEADER SR No. 29297+1 CC to MR. S. UDAYAKUMAR, Advocate SR No. 29167SSV (CO)JV / 11.05.2007 W.P.No.13470 of 2007