While universities cannot dilute the standards prescribed by AICTE, they certainly have the power to stipulate enhanced norms and standards: SC
When the Statutes have not prescribed any conditions for affiliation but have left it to the Syndicate to take care of matters relating to affiliation, the function of the Syndicate to lay down norms and standards by virtue of the powers conferred by Section 30(2), is made free of any fetters. This judgment was delivered by three judge bench comprising hon’ble Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde, Justice A.S. Bopanna and Justice V. Ramasubramanian at Supreme Court in the matter APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University &amp; anr. v. Jai Bharath College of Management and Engineering Technology &amp; Ors. [ C.A. No. 4016 of 2020].   Aggrieved by the order passed by the Division Bench of the Kerala High Court directing the Vice Chancellor of the University to   reconsider   the   application   for   affiliation   of   a   new   B.Tech course,   submitted  by   the   first   respondent,   which   is   a   self-financing Engineering College, solely on the basis of the extension of   approval  granted   by   the   All   India   Council   for   Technical Education  (hereinafter   referred   to   as   “AICTE”),   the   APJ   Abdul Kalam Technological University, which is a State University and its Vice Chancellor have come up with this appeal. The writ petition filed by the first respondent challenging the   denial   of   affiliation   for   starting   a   new   B.Tech   course   in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, was taken up along with similar writ petitions filed by other colleges (including those filed by the Colleges, which have now come up with applications for intervention/impleadment and for vacation of interim order) and all of them were disposed of by a learned Judge of the High Court by a Judgment dated 06.08.2020. Not   satisfied   with   the   partial   relief   granted   and   the directions issued by the learned Judge, the first respondent filed a writ appeal in Writ Appeal No.1073 of 2020 before the Division Bench   of   the   High   Court.   The   other   Colleges   who   were   writ petitioners, also filed separate writ appeals. Aggrieved by the said judgment of the Division Bench of the Kerala High Court, the University has come up with the above appeal. It is stated across the Bar that the appellant­ University has   filed   similar   appeals   against   the   very   same   impugned Judgment and those appeals are yet to be numbered. Therefore, when the colleges filed writ appeals and argued about the procedure to be followed under Section 14(6) in the absence of the Statutes, the appellant­ University relied upon the Statutes   issued   on   07.08.2020   and   the   power   of   ratification. Statute No.93 was brought to the notice of the Division Bench to show that all matters relating to affiliation fell within the scope of the powers of the Syndicate. But the Division Bench not only rejected the argument of ratification, but also rejected the reliance placed upon Statute No.93 on the ground that the power under Statute No.93 may relate only to the grant of affiliation of a teaching course or any subject in a teaching course, conducted in any of the colleges which are not affiliated.
 to reconsider the application for affiliation of a new B.Tech course submitted by the first respondent which is a self­ of approval granted by the All India Council for Technical Education the APJ Abdul We have heard Mr. Chander Uday Singh learned Senior Counsel appearing for the appellant­University Mr. S Krishnamoorthy learned Counsel appearing for the first respondent­College Ms. Priyanka Prakash learned Counsel appearing for the second respondent­State and Mr. Anil Soni learned Counsel appearing for the third respondent­AICTE. We have also heard Mr. C. Arayama Sundaram Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan and Mr. P.S. Narasimha learned Senior appearing the applicants seeking date is that there are 149 Engineering Colleges in the State of In addition there are also six Central Government Therefore with a view to regulate technical education in the State the State of Kerala enacted the APJ Abdul Kalam University Act”). Some of the Objects of the University as b) to improve the academic standards of the graduate postgraduate and research programmes in engineering to substantially increase enrolment in Postgraduate education and research programmes in the colleges and institutions with the aim of promoting engineering research for multidisciplinary applied research in specific thematic to improve the learning skills of the students by constantly and continuously improving and upgrading the improvement programmes in the field of technical The powers and functions of the University enlisted in iii) to lay down the norms and standards for the establishment maintenance administration supervision and recognition of colleges and centres maintained by the Act and the Statutes Ordinances and Regulations and to withdraw affiliation of colleges obtained in violation of to confer academic autonomy to affiliated colleges institutions or a department of the affiliated colleges or to hold examinations and to confer degrees postgraduate degrees diplomas certificates and other the University unless exempted therefrom in the public interest the management of colleges or institutions management of such college or institution are prima facie evident to the committee of enquiry appointed by the Sections 60 to 66 provide for affiliation and recognition procedure for permission continuation of affiliation withdrawal of affiliation etc. Section 60 of the Act which prescribes the conditions subject to which affiliation can be granted by the 60. Affiliation and recognition.­ The University can affiliate any of the Engineering Colleges or Institutions Private unaided self­financing educational agencies which before the date of commencement of this Act remained affiliated to the different Universities except Deemed Universities in the State of Kerala provided they meet the criteria prescribed under this Act Ordinances and Statutes for affiliation including but not confined to availability of faculty administrative machinery criteria can be affiliated to the University as regular colleges or autonomous colleges colleges with from the date of commencement of this Act subject to the in respect of the students admitted to Engineering courses shall continue till those batches of students complete their courses the examinations of all such students shall be conducted by the Universities to which they were attached degrees postgraduate degrees or diplomas or other Provided that the institutions in the technological departments or their respective constituent colleges or the engineering colleges or teaching institutions under the by the Central Government shall not come under the The Educational Agency applying for affiliation or recognition and whose college or institution has been field in the State rules made thereunder and Statutes Ordinances Regulations standing orders and colleges receiving financial assistance from the of study shall not exceed the limits prescribed from time to time by the University the Government Central or State Councils or authorities in the facilities such as building laboratories libraries prescribed by Statutes Ordinances and Regulations that the financial resources of the college or non­teaching staff of the affiliated colleges and the prescribed by the University and which shall be teaching or training or research efficiently employees and the facilities of the college to be affiliated shall be made available for conducting viii) that the directions and orders issued by the Chancellor Vice­Chancellor and other officers of the under the provisions of this Act Statutes Ordinances Legislature in this regard shall be complied with x) that the college or institution shall not be closed the college or institution including building and of the amount paid as a grant­in­aid by the Government or the University Grants Commission While section 60 extracted above lays down in detail the granted to an institution Section 63 of the University Act recognised institution may apply for continuation of The University shall follow the procedure prescribed in 2) The affiliated college or recognised institution may of study and the same shall be considered by the University following the procedures or rules prescribed affiliated college may apply for permanent affiliation in the manner as may be prescribed in the Statutes and the The first respondent is a self­financing Institution which was earlier offering B.Tech courses in five disciplines with an After closing the course in one particular discipline the first Data Science” with a permitted annual intake of 60 students from the Academic Year 2020­21. The application was in 11. On 13.06.2020 AICTE granted approval to the first respondent for starting the newly proposed course even while affiliation to the appellant­University in February March 2020 self­financing engineering colleges. As against the permitted intake of 58 165 students for the academic year 2015­16 only 37 007 students got admitted leaving 19 468 seats vacant. The number of vacant seats rose to 20 038 in the academic year Order that permission for starting new courses in Engineering shall be granted only if three conditions are satisfied namely: that the admission of students in the previous academic years should least one of the existing programs should have NBA accreditation ii) that the average annual intake of the institution for the intake that the proposed programme should have AICTE approval and NOC from State Government and that the Thereafter a sub­committee was constituted for the purpose of recommending affiliation for new courses or programmes for the affiliated colleges who have submitted applications for starting new programmes. This sub­committee resolved in its meeting held on 20.03.2020 to suggest the following criteria for the consideration of the Syndicate of the The sub­committee examined all the 50 proposals received till 19­03­2020 from various colleges for granting affiliation to new programs additional intakes. Upon scrutiny of each application in line with the criteria suggested by the Syndicate as cited above 21 institutions Accordingly the sub­committee recommends that the proposals from these 21 institutions for starting new for BVoC courses be considered by the Syndicate for The sub­committee identified two case wherein the institutions are having NBA accreditation but with be framed in a time bound manner well before the Finding that the Government Order G.O. No.1039 dated 22.06.2019 and the resolution of the Syndicate dated 04.02.2020 has led to an unfavourable climate with the sub­ committee not recommending the grant of affiliation for their proposed new course the first respondent­College filed a writ petition in Writ Petition No.12709 of 2020 before the High Court of Kerala. It appears that the writ petition was filed on 23.06.2020 seeking the following reliefs namely: to set aside the Government Order dated 22.06.2019 to direct the the academic year 2020­21 to quash the resolution of the Syndicate dated 04.02.2020 as communicated by the Order of University to consider the application for affiliation of the proposed course without insisting on NBA accreditation and By sheer coincidence the 13th meeting of the Syndicate of the appellant­University was held on 24.06.2020 the day by a total of nine persons of which one was the Principal Kerala and another was the Director of Technical Education The rest were academicians. In this meeting the Syndicate examined the list of colleges which had applied for new courses programmes without any NBA accreditation. Finding that even colleges which did not have NBA accreditation had than 50% pass for the outgoing students at the time of application for affiliation that the Institution should have Though the first respondent filed the writ petition on 23.06.2020 challenging the order of the University dated 10.06.2020 and though the earlier Syndicate Resolution dated 04.02.2020 stood modified by the next Syndicate orders impugned in the writ petition stood amended by the time the writ petition was heard but the the denial of affiliation for starting a new B.Tech course in by a Judgment dated 06.08.2020. By the said Judgment the 14 of the University Act read with Section 30(2)(xiv) the the Registrar dated 10.06.2020 would be applicable to both Syndicate dated 24.06.2020 NOC from the State Government and NBA accreditation are no longer necessary that as a liable to be set aside and that the University may have to reconsider one portion of its decision dated 24.06.2020 after Handbook contained a recommendation to discourage the creation of additional seats in traditional disciplines but to to emerging new technologies. Clause 7 of Annexure 14 made accreditation mandatory for increase in intake starting new Not satisfied with the partial relief granted and the Bench of the High Court. The other Colleges who were writ this appeal the Division Bench partially allowed the writ appeals decisions dated 04.02.2020 the very power of the University to go beyond 25. On the first issue revolving around the power of the the procedure prescribed in the Statutes. Admittedly the first this power in the opinion of the High Court has to be exercised by the Vice Chancellor with the approval of the Board of the matter back to the Vice Chancellor to follow the course of It is relevant to note at this stage that the power of the it did as per its Resolutions was upheld by the learned Single of the learned Single Judge was delivered on 06.08.2020 Statutes of the University to lay down norms for affiliation for additional courses. However on the very next day namely about the procedure to be followed under Section 14(6) in the Statutes issued on 07.08.2020 and the power of ratification the powers of the Syndicate. But the Division Bench not only Statute No.93 may relate only to the grant of affiliation of a Section 63(2) which we have already extracted in paragraph 9 additional courses to an affiliated college or recognized norms and standards. The Division Bench overlooked the fact by the Syndicate first on 04.02.2020 as communicated by the of affiliation for additional courses. The challenge was to the and standards but deals only with the grant of affiliation for to believe that there is an emergency which requires immediate action to be taken he shall take such action as he thinks necessary and shall submit for approval in the taken by him to such authority or body which in the ordinary course would have dealt with the matter. In the the authority on the issue of existence of such an emergency or on the authority on the issue of existence of such an emergency or on the action taken or on both the matter shall be referred to the Chancellor whose decision Where any matter is required to be regulated by the Vice­Chancellor thinks necessary and shall as soon as 30. On a reading of Section 14(6) the High court came to the conclusion that the Vice Chancellor in the absence of Statutes but if he does so he has to take the approval of the Board of uses the words “Board of Governors or other authority or body concerned for approval”. Therefore it is not necessary that the Vice­Chancellor after issuing directions should take the In the case on hand the Syndicate of the University comprised of nine persons including the Vice Chancellor the Principal Secretary to the Higher Education Department of the few academicians. All that the Syndicate wanted from the Colleges seeking affiliation for additional courses was the pass for the outgoing students at the time of application for affiliation most recent academic audit overall score of “Good” and three years average intake of more than 50% of the University in accordance with the provisions of the Act the 8 which confers power upon the University to make Statutes Under Section 22 as it was originally drafted the University shall have a Board of Governors an Executive Committee the Academic Committee the Research Council and such other A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technological University Act was changed to ‘Academic Council’ and the nomenclature of ‘Executive Committee’ was changed to ‘Syndicate’. Therefore wherever there was a reference in the Act to the ‘Executive Committee’ it had to be construed as a reference to the of Section 30 lists out the powers available to the Syndicate iii) to propose norms and standards for affiliating colleges as regular colleges or autonomous colleges or Thus the source of power for the Syndicate to prescribe and the Statutes”. So if there is something in the Act or the then the Syndicate may be bound by such prescription. But if all then it cannot be said that the power itself is unavailable out of the University Statutes. Therefore the absence of Statutes till they were made for the first time on 07.08.2020 did under Section 14(6) overlooking for a moment that the power under Section 30(2)(iii) would not become otiose due to the Section 42 of the Act which speaks about the issue of the Statutes makes it clear that “the conditions and procedures for affiliation of Colleges and for withdrawing the affiliation of colleges” is one of the matters that could be provided for in the clear that the Statutes can provide for the conditions and procedure for affiliation. The absence of the Statutes on the ground that there were no Even assuming for a moment that the absence of the Statutes would take one automatically to Section 14(6) the Chancellor who has the power to regulate any matter which is the Vice Chancellor may first regulate the matter by issuing we do so it can be seen that it was the Syndicate chaired by the Vice Chancellor which took the impugned decisions in its meetings held on 04.02.2020 and 24.06.2020 and hence the prescription of norms by the Syndicate chaired by the Vice In any case once the Statutes were issued on 07.08.2020 the vacuum sought to be filled up by Section 14(6) also disappeared. Under Section 43(1) of the Act the State Government has the power to issue the first Statutes of the curtail the power of the Syndicate to lay down norms and standards. Under Clause of Section 42 the Statutes may Syndicate to prescribe the conditions. Statute No.93 reads as To grant exemption or reduction in the following mattes and also other mattes not specified here below of study or any subject in a course of study not Therefore the norms prescribed by the Syndicate in its that at least 50% of the outgoing students had passed their colleges can demand affiliation for creating additional courses role of the appellant­University vis­a­vis AICTE. A little The AICTE was actually set up in 1945 as a National Expert Body to advice the Central and State Governments for be vested with statutory powers to regulate and maintain standards of Technical Education in the country. Therefore a National Working Group was set up in November 1985. On the basis of the recommendations made by the National Working Group the AICTE Act 1987 was enacted. Section 23(1) of the AICTE Act empowers the Council to make regulations not inconsistent with the provisions of the Act and the Rules may be necessary for ensuring coordinated and integrated development of Technical and Management Education and courses curricula physical and instrumental facilities staff pattern staff qualifications quality instructions assessment and examinations. Clause(o) empowers the Council to provide Universities imparting technical education. Clause(k) of Sub­ for starting new Technical Institutions and for introduction of new courses or programmes in consultation with the agencies Regulations framed by the AICTE does not include any of the the Council are to be regulated the procedure for conducting of service of officers and employees of the Council the constitution and powers of the Board of Studies etc. But Sub­ section of Section 23 makes it clear that the items listed make Regulations under Sub­section for carrying out the purposes of the Act. This is why all Regulations are issued by Seventh Schedule to the Constitution. The A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technological University Act issued by the Kerala State In R. Chitralekha vs. State of Mysore and Others1 the Act conjointly. The Court pointed out that a State Law admissions to colleges it cannot be said that it would be The decision of the Supreme Court in R. Chitralekha K. Purushotham Reddy arose under very peculiar 1986 an Act known as Andhra Pradesh Commissionerate of Higher Education Act 1986. The constitutional validity of the said Act was questioned on the ground of lack of legislative competence in view of the University Grants Commission Act 1956. Though a Full Bench of the High Court rejected the challenge the Supreme Court declared the Act as unconstitutional by its judgment in Osmania University Teachers’ Association vs. State of Andhra Pradesh and Court as unconstitutional. Therefore the matter was carried to this Court. A Two Member Bench of this Court doubted the correctness of the decision in Osmania University Teachers’ Association and hence the matter was referred to a three­member Bench. The three­member Bench rejected the challenge to the State Act by following the decision in R this Court held in Bharathidasan University and Another vs the status authority and autonomous functioning of the That even the State Government can prescribe higher member Bench of this court in State of T.N. and Another vs S.V. Bratheep and Others6. This principle was later applied in the case of Universities in Visveswaraiah i) While prescribing the eligibility criteria for admission to adversely affect the standards laid down by the Central Body AICTE. The term “adversely affect the standards” refers to lowering of the norms laid down by Central that where seats remain unfilled the state authorities cannot deny admission to any student satisfying the by the State University would cease to apply or that the to modify the eligibility criteria fixed by them they will are filled but to ensure that excellence in standards of eligibility criteria for admissions keeping in balance the need to maintain excellence and high standard in higher education on the one hand and the need to maintain a Visveswaraiah principles were reiterated in Others8. The legal position summarised in paragraph 14 of the report in Visveswaraiah (extracted above) were quoted with approval by the Constitution Bench in Modern Dental No. IV framed for consideration by the Constitution Bench 15 SCC 242 competence of the State of Madhya Pradesh”. While i) that the decision in Dr. Preeti Srivastava and Another vs altogether from admissions and that the observations in In the concurring and supplementing opinion rendered by R Banumathi J. in Modern Dental College the legal to Government Education Department Thiruvanathapuram Kerala State and Another12 Mata Gujri Memorial Medical College vs. State of Bihar and Others13and Rungta Engineering College Bhilai and Another vs .Chattisgarh Swami Vivekanand Technical AICTE Regulations and the Approval Process Handbook 3 decisions are distinguishable. In Jaya Gokul Educational Trust the question whether the State Government as a matter of policy can decline to grant approval for the establishment of a new Engineering College in view of the perception of the State Government that the opening of a new Thereafter in Bharathidasan University the Supreme Court noted Jaya Gokul Educational Trust on which the High Court placed heavy reliance this Court relied upon the decisions in State of T.N. and Another vs. Adhiyaman Educational and Research Institute and Others15 and Jaya Gokul. In Adhiyaman this Court held that in the case of Act and the University but the Central Act and the Council Rungta Engineering College did not take note of Bharathidasan University B.V. Bratheep Visveswaraiah and Mahatma Gandhi University. Therefore it cannot be said before this Court supporting the case of the first Respondent College and branding the fixation of additional norms and developments that have taken place after 2012 on the AICTE After the advent of AICTE Regulations 2012 the applications for extension of approvals are processed by AICTE as prescribed by AICTE are found to be available on paper online. The AICTE Regulations 2020 also require under Regulation 5.6.a. that existing institutions should submit Handbook for 2020­21 makes it clear that the extension of approval will be based on self­disclosure. Paragraph 13 of the counter affidavit of the AICTE contains an extract of Clause inspections and take penal action against colleges for false not serve any purpose for the students who get admitted to students will get compensated when penal action is taken against colleges which host false information online in their obliged to issue degrees and whose reputation is inextricably may have to face the music and hence their role cannot be Human Resources Development of the Government of India launched an initiative in September 2015 known as National parameters such as: Teaching Learning and Resources Graduation Outcomes iv) Outreach and Inclusivity andPeer Perception. No State their own performance is being measured by international standards. Therefore the power of the universities to prescribe cost of repetition we point out that while universities cannot 60. Accordingly the appeal is allowed and the impugned the Syndicate on 24.06.2020 in modification of the earlier resolution dated 04.02.2020 is upheld. As a corollary the consequential actions if any of the University as regards the first respondent­College are also upheld. The applications for impleadment intervention are dismissed and the other pending applications if any shall stand disposed of. There will be no