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TaxTMI 
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2013 (4) TMI 728
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....hnical Education Act, 1987 (for short AICTE Act) and held that even though the University is not required to take permission from the All India Council for Technical Education (for short AICTE), its affiliated colleges are required to do so. Further, the High Court has held, while dismissing the writ appeals, that the appellant colleges should get its course of MCA ratified by AICTE as per the prescribed format which according to the appellants herein is in contravention of settled principles of interpretation of Statutes and also runs contrary to the law laid down by this Court in case of Bharathidasan University & Anr. Vs. AICTE & Ors. (2001) 8 SCC 676 2. Certain relevant facts in relation to the appeals are stated hereunder:-- The appellant colleges in the State of Tamil Nadu are running Arts and Science courses. Most of them are affiliated to Bharathidasan University and some of them are affiliated to Manonmaniam Sundaranar University. The member colleges of the appellant in C.A.No.1145 of 2004 and the appellants in the connected appeals are running MCA course which have so far not obtained the approval of the AICTE. According to the information placed before the Court by th....
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....gment which is under challenge in CA No.1145 of 2004. 6(a) So far as the facts in the connected appeals are concerned, they are stated in brief as under: The colleges run by the appellants in the connected appeals are affiliated to Bharathidasan University and it has approved the courses and programmes which are being conducted by the said colleges including MCA and MBA. The AICTE Regulation is applicable to professional colleges only that to from academic year 1994. There is no provision for existing arts and science colleges which are running MCA courses. The letter dated 31.5.2000 from the AICTE was received by Bharathidasan University wherein it was mentioned that no admission should be made by the competent authorities in unapproved or unrecognized professional colleges from the academic year 1994. Some of the colleges filed writ petitions in the High Court of Judicature at Madras challenging the letter dated 31.5.2000 being ultravires of the AICTE Act itself. The High Court passed an interim order dated 20.7.2000 staying the direction of the AICTE as contained in its letter dated 31.5.2000. During the pendency of the writ petition, the AICTE amended regulations vide notifi....
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....t even though the University is not required to take permission of the AICTE to start or run a course of technical nature, the colleges affiliated to the University/Universities cannot claim such a right. This interpretation is not the correct legal position for the reason that when the Universities are exempted from taking permission/approval from the AICTE, the High Court in view of the law laid down in Bharathidasan University's case (supra) could not have held that the colleges affiliated to their respective universities which are imparting tuition to the students under them by conducting courses are required to take permission or approval from the AICTE. 8. It is further contended that the colleges who have opened the courses in question are affiliated to the universities. They are the controlling authorities with regard to their intake capacity for each course, the standards to be followed for each course, the syllabus of the course, the examination process etc. It is urged that the High Court has failed to consider the relevant aspects of the case namely that it is the university/universities only which awards/confers degree on the students studying the course in question i....
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....niversity for making themselves eligible for degrees. Therefore, the interpretation given by the High Court in the impugned judgment that the colleges affiliated to the University which are imparting education to their students on behalf of the University will have to seek AICTE's approval for technical courses, though such approval is not required to be obtained by the affiliated colleges as the same will be contrary to the judgment of this Court referred to supra. 12. Further, it is contended that the High Court has erred in not appreciating that the colleges are affiliated to a University, which is their controlling authority and has been established by an Act of State legislature which has given it suitable powers to regulate the procedure of the affiliated colleges regarding their education standards, infrastructure, examinations etc. This can be noticed by perusing various provisions of Bharathidasan University Act, 1981 and especially Section 8, 33 (xvii) and (xviii), 39 and 63, which read as under:- "8. Visitation- The Chancellor shall have the right to cause an inspection or inquiry to be made, by such person or persons as he may direct, of the University, its buildings....
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....University to which the member colleges of the appellants belong is controlled by the University Grants Commission, which is a Central Governing Body formed under the Act of Parliament known as University Grants Commission Act of 1956, for controlling the affairs of the University recognized by it. The Bharathidasan University is recognized by the UGC. The relevant provisions of this Act which cover the said University and its colleges are Sections 12, 12A, 13 and 14, which will be extracted in the relevant paragraphs of this judgment. It is further urged that the aforesaid provisions would show that the UGC provisions for controlling the University are applicable and analogous to its affiliated colleges also and therefore to carve out a distinction between the University and its affiliated colleges and not treating the affiliated colleges as an integral part of the University in the impugned judgment by the High Court is not only erroneous in law but also suffers from error in law. 13. The High Court has failed to take into consideration the relevant legal aspect of the cases viz. that the AICTE has been given adequate power to inspect the colleges and University running technica....
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....urther strong emphasis is placed by him at Paragraph 10 of the Bharathidasan University's case (supra) wherein this Court, with reference to the provisions of AICTE Act held that the Act is not intended to be an authority either superior to or supervise and control the universities and thereby superimpose itself upon such universities merely for the reason that it is imparting technical education or programmes in any of its departments or units. Further, observations are made after careful scanning of the provisions of the AICTE Act and the provisions of the UGC Act in juxtaposition, will show that the role of AICTE vis-à-vis the Universities is only advisory, recommendatory and a guiding factor and thereby subserves the cause of maintaining appropriate standards and qualitative norms and not as an authority empowered to issue and enforce any sanctions by itself, except submitting a report to UGC for appropriate action. Further, he had placed reliance on Paragraph 12 of the abovementioned case and contended that the intention of the Parliament was very clear while enacting the AICTE Act as it was fully alive of the existence of the provisions of the UGC Act which was in full....
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....5), the Commission shall take all such steps as it may consider appropriate for safeguarding the interests of the students concerned. Sub-section (7) further states that regulations made for the purpose of the aforesaid provisions of Section 12A of the UGC Act shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in any other law for the time being in force. 16. Further, reliance has been placed by him upon Section 12B of the UGC Act which confers power on the Commission to pass an order of prohibition regarding giving any grant to a University declared by the Commission not fit to receive such grant. This provision was inserted in the UGC Act through an Amendment Act, 1972 (33 of 1972) which came into force on 17.6.1972. Further, reliance was also placed upon Section 13 regarding the power of inspection upon the UGC for the purpose of ascertaining the financial needs of the university or its standards of teaching, examination and research. 17. Dr. Dhavan, learned senior counsel for the appellant placing reliance upon the aforesaid provisions of the UGC Act, submits that the provisions of the UGC Act will regulate and control the functions of the university ....
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....ction and contrary to the decisions of this Court. Further, strong reliance is placed by learned senior counsel Dr. Dhavan that issues which are raised in this case are answered in the TMA Pai Foundation v. State of Karnataka. (2002) 8 SCC 481 19. The learned senior counsel submitted that Section 14 of the UGC Act provides for consequences of failure by Universities to comply with recommendations of the Commission which provides that if any University grants affiliation in respect of any course of study to any college referred to in sub-section (5) of Section 12A in contravention of the provision of that subsection or fails within a reasonable time to comply with any recommendation made by the Commission under Section 12 or Section 13 or contravenes the provisions of any rule made under sub-section 2(f) or 2(g) of Section 25, or of any regulation made under clauses (e), (f) or (g) of Section 26, the Commission after taking into consideration the cause, if any, shown by the University or such failure or contravention, may withhold from the University the grants proposed to be made out of the fund of the Commission. This clearly goes to show that there is control of the functions of....
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....ber colleges of the appellant Association are affiliated to, is legislated by the State legislature and the AICTE Act is enacted by the Parliament under Entry 66 of List I. Therefore, the question of repugnancy between the two enactments referred to supra do not arise at all since repugnancy under Article 254(2) of the Constitution would accrue only in relation to the law legislated by the Parliament and the State legislature from the entries of the concurrent list of VII schedule. 21. Learned senior counsel Dr. Dhavan has also placed strong reliance upon the report of Kothari Commission (1964-1966) which shows that the AICTE Act should be held to cover only non-university education and the said report emphasizes upon the importance of education and universities and further emphasizes the importance of autonomy of the university and finances of the universities and the role of UGC. Further, he placed reliance upon the National Policy of Education which envisages vesting of statutory authority for planning, formulation and the maintenance of norms and standards in the education. Therefore, he submits that the AICTE cannot have any kind of control or regulation for the functioning o....
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....ntravention to the settled position of law as laid down by this Court in catena of cases. 24. It is further contended by the learned counsel that this Court has held in number of cases that the courts cannot add or delete words or punctuations in a statute. It is also well settled proposition of law that the court shall gather the meaning of the statute by its simple and plain reading specially where there is no ambiguity in the language used in the definition provision and it should be construed in its literal sense. 25. It is further urged by him that the High Court has failed to take into consideration that the amendment dated 16.8.2000, i.e. deletion of Regulation No. 2(2) and addition of 8(c) and 8(iv) of Regulations of 1994 could not take effect unless the same was placed before the Parliament as required under Section 24 of the AICTE Act, wherein the amended Regulations have been framed. The amendments must be laid before both the Houses of the Parliament which is mandatory as provided under the aforesaid provision of the Act. The authority which frames Regulations as provided under Section 23 could not be validly exercised unless such Regulations are laid before both the ....
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....s as well as its affiliated colleges which are being run by the appellants herein and similarly placed colleges under Section 12, 12A, 13 and 14 of the UGC Act. The aforesaid provisions of UGC Act would show that those provisions would speak of Regulations of the university that is applicable and analogous to its affiliated colleges also. 28. Further, the learned counsel placing strong reliance upon the law laid down in the judgment of this Court in Bharathidasan University case (supra) wherein this Court has specifically held after referring to certain provisions of the AICTE Act and earlier judgments of this Court in Adhiyaman Education and Research Institute (supra) and Jaya Gokul Educational Trust (supra) that the AICTE is not intended to be controlling or supervising authority over the University merely because the University is also imparting courses of "Technical Education". Further, it was held that Regulation No.4 insofar as it compels the university to seek for and obtain prior approval and not start any new department or course or programme in Technical Education and empower itself to withdraw such approval, in a given case of contravention of the Regulation No.12, is ....
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....the judgment rendered in Bharathidasan University's case (supra). 30. Learned counsel placed strong reliance upon the counter affidavit filed by the AICTE on 16.1.2013 in Civil Appeal No.1145 of 2004. Subsequent to the filing of the present appeal in 2004, the AICTE framed new Regulations in 2005 and 2006 which provide that "technical institution" means institution conducting the course, inter alia, in the field of technical education, training and research in engineering, technology including MCA. The Regulations of 2005 and 2006 further provide that not only new technical institutions but even existing technical institution cannot conduct any technical course without prior approval of the AICTE. The learned counsel submitted that it is more than apparent that the said Regulations have been specifically framed to counter the challenges posed by the appellant institutions to their authorities and power to regulate the course of MCA. Also after taking clues from the impugned judgment in Bharathidasan University's case they had taken care that there is comma in between 'engineering' and 'technology' in the definition of "technical institution". Therefore, it is submitted that the sa....
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....nches of study of engineering and technology and will cover both the subjects. Therefore, the existence or absence of comma between the two words is of no significance and the crucial issue is delineation of the scope of 'engineering technology'. Existence and absence of comma and its scope should be determined with reference to the entire object and purpose of the Act that is, the proper planning and coordinated development of the "technical education" system throughout the country. Therefore, the regulation and proper maintenance of norms and standards in the "technical education" system in the Preamble of AICTE Act is very important. 32. Further, strong reliance was placed by the learned senior counsel for the respondent upon Parshvanath Charitable Trust case (supra) wherein the course content of the three years MCA course with six semesters would clearly go to show that the course undertaken by the colleges affiliated to the Universities in the cases is very wide and covers the fundamentals of computer engineering including software engineering as well as the technology of computer system. Section 2(g) of the AICTE Act reads as under:- "Technical Education" means programmes ....
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....l over the UGC Act or the effect of competing entries in the three lists of VII Schedule of the Constitution. On the other hand, a bare perusal of Adhiyaman Education and Research Institute and Jaya Gokul Educational Trust cases would clearly show that this Court was considering the applicability of AICTE Act to the engineering colleges affiliated to universities and whose courses included programmes of Engineering and Computer Sciences. Also, in both the cases, the two Judge Bench examined the competing entries in the List 1 and List III in the VIIth Schedule of the Constitution and held that the State enactment-UGC Act would not prevail over the AICTE Act and rather to the extent of repugnancy the enactment of the UGC Act would be impliedly repealed. It was held in those cases that power of universities to affiliate such colleges would depend on compliance of norms and standards fixed by the AICTE and the approval granted by the AICTE and also that if AICTE grants approval to such colleges then they need not obtain the approval of the State Government and the universities should not insist upon obtaining the approvals from the State Government. Heavy reliance has been placed on t....
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....s as may be necessary for ensuring compliance of the directions of the Council, declaring technical institutions at various levels and types fit to receive grants, the constitution of the Council and its Executive Committee and the Regional Committees to carry out the functions under the Central Act, the compliance by the Council of the directions issued by the Central Government on questions of policy etc. which matters are covered by the Central Act. What is further, the primary object of the Central Act, as discussed earlier, is to provide for the establishment of an All India Council for Technical Education with a view, among others, to plan and coordinate the development of technical education system throughout the country and to promote the qualitative improvement of such education and to regulate and properly maintain the norms and standards in the technical education system which is a subject within the exclusive legislative field of the Central Government as is clear from Entry 66 of the Union List in the Seventh Schedule. All the other provisions of the Act have been made in furtherance of the said objectives. They can also be deemed to have been enacted under Entry 25 of....
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....nion List or make a law which is repugnant to the Central law. (vi) However, when the situations/seats are available and the State authorities deny an applicant the same on the ground that the applicant is not qualified according to its standards or qualifications, as the case may be, although the applicant satisfies the standards or qualifications laid down by the Central law, they act unconstitutionally. So also when the State authorities de-recognise or disaffiliate an institution for not satisfying the standards or requirement laid down by them, although it satisfied the norms and requirements laid down by the Central authority, the State authorities act illegally." Also, the relevant paragraphs of the Jaya Gokul Education Trust case are extracted hereunder: "16. ...... It was held that the AICTE Act was referable to Entry 66 List I of the Constitution of India, relating to "coordination and determination of standards in institutions for higher education or research and scientific and technical institutions". After the constitutional amendment (Forty-second Amendment Act, 1976) Entry 25 of List III in the Concurrent List read: "Education, included technical education, me....
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.... had to consult them. 19. ...... In our opinion, even if there was a State law in the State of Kerala which required the approval of the State Government for establishing technical institutions, such a law would have been repugnant to the AICTE Act and void to that extent, as held in T.N. case. 22. ..... If, indeed, the University statute could be so interpreted, such a provision requiring approval of the State Government would be repugnant to the provisions of Section 10(k) of the AICTE Act, 1987 and would again be void. As pointed out in T.N. case there were enough provisions in the Central Act for consultation by the Council of AICTE with various agencies, including the State Governments and the universities concerned. The State-Level Committee and the Central Regional Committees contained various experts and State representatives. In case of difference of opinion as between the various consultees, AICTE would have to go by the views of the Central Task Force. These were sufficient safeguards for ascertaining the views of the State Governments and the universities. No doubt the question of affiliation was a different matter and was not covered by the Central Act but in T.N. ....
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....iven by the university enactment. In view of the aforesaid factual position he submits that issues in relation to coverage of affiliated colleges imparting technical education under Section 10(k) of AICTE Act stand decided and concluded by the judgments in Adhiyaman Education and Research Institute and Jaya Gokul Educational Trust cases whereas the Bharathidasan University's case deals with the department and constituent institutions and units of the university itself. It was further submitted that the contention of the appellant colleges that they do not require prior approval from the AICTE since they are not covered by Section 10(k) read with Section 2(g) & (h) of the Act, is not tenable in law. This Court took care to make observations that universities have to maintain the norms and standards fixed by the AICTE, even though they do not need prior approval for starting a department or constituent institutions and units. Further, strong reliance was placed by the learned senior counsel upon the provisions of Sections 10, 11 and 22 of the AICTE Act. A careful analysis of the said provision would go to show the role of inspection conferred upon the AICTE vis-à-vis Universit....
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.... 2(h), 2(i) and 2(g) respectively read with Section 10(k) of the AICTE Act and also the definition of 2(f) of the UGC Act read with Sections 12, 12A, 12B, 12(2) (c) of the UGC Act. Section 2 (f), (g), (h) and (i) of the AICTE Act read as: "2. Definitions. ........ (f) "Regulations" means regulations made under this Act. (g) "Technical education" means programmes of education, research and training in engineering technology, architecture, town planning, management, pharmacy and applied arts and crafts and such other programme or areas as the Central Government may, in consultation with the Council, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare; (h) "Technical institution" means an institution, not being a university which offers courses or programmes of technical education, and shall include such other institutions as the Central Government may, in consultation with the Council, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare as technical institutions: (i) "University" means a University defined under clause (f) of Section 2 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 (3 of 1956) and includes an institution deemed to be a University under section 3 of that Act. 1....
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....ment under section 3, as it may deem necessary, for one or more of the following purposes, namely:- (i) for maintenance in special cases, (ii) for development, (iii) for any other general or specified purpose;] 1["(ccc) establish, in accordance with the regulations made under this Act, institutions for providing common facilities, services and programmes for a group of universities or for the universities in general and maintain such institutions or provide for their maintenance by allocating and, disbursing out of the Fund of the Commission such grants as the Commission may deem necessary".] (d) recommend to any University the measures necessary for the improvement of University education and advise the University upon the action to be taken for the purpose of implementing such recommendation; (e) advise the Central Government or any State Government on the allocation of any grants to Universities for any general or specified purpose out of the Consolidated Fund of India or the Consolidated Fund of the State, as the case may be; (f) advise any authority, if such advice is asked for, on the establishment of a new University or on proposals connected with the expansion....
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....f Section 22. (2) Without prejudice to the generality of the provisions of section 12 if, having regard to- (c) the minimum standards which a person possessing such qualification should be able to maintain in his work relating to such activities and the consequent need for ensuring, so far as may be, that no candidate secures admission to such course of study by reason of economic power and thereby prevents a more meritorious candidate from securing admission to such course of study; and (d) all other relevant factors, the commission is satisfied that it is necessary so to do in the public interest, it may, after consultation with the university or universities concerned, specify by regulations the matters in respect of which fees may be charged and the scale of fees in accordance with which fees shall be charged in respect of those matters on and from such date as may be specified in the regulation in this behalf, by any college providing for such course of study from, or in relation to, any student in connection with his admission to, and prosecution of, such course of study;........ 13. Inspection.- (1) For the purpose of ascertaining the financial needs of a University ....
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....tment for imparting a course or programme in technical education or a technical institution as an adjunct to the university itself for conducting technical courses of its choice and selection. Therefore, the ratio laid down in the said case has no application to the fact situation of these education institutions/colleges which are run by the appellants herein though they are affiliated to their respective universities. Therefore, he placed strong reliance upon the ratio laid down by this Court in Adhiyaman Education and Research Institute and Jaya Gokul Educational Trust's cases wherein this Court has clearly enunciated the law after elaborately adverting to the legislative entries in List I Entry 66 and List III Entry 25 regarding the respective legislative competence of the Parliament and the State Legislature. To substantiate his contention, he claimed that the AICTE Act is enacted by the Parliament under Entry 66 of List I and the Universities are established under the provisions of Bharathidasan University Act which was enacted by the State Legislature from Entry 25 of List III. The Bharathidasan University Act, fell for consideration of this Court in the above said judgments.....
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....lly set up by a government resolution as a national expert body to advise the Central and State Governments for ensuring the coordinated development of technical education in accordance with approved standards was playing an effective role, but, "[h]owever, in recent years, a large number of private engineering colleges and polytechnics have come up in complete disregard of the guidelines, laid down by the AICTE" and taking into account the serious deficiencies of even rudimentary infrastructure necessary for imparting proper education and training and the need to maintain educational standards and curtail the growing erosion of standards statutory authority was meant to be conferred upon AICTE to play its role more effectively by enacting the AICTE Act. 9. Section 2(h) defines "technical institution" for the purposes of the Act, as follows: "2. (h) 'technical institution' means an institution, not being a university, which offers courses or programmes of technical education, and shall include such other institutions as the Central Government may, in consultation with the Council, by notification in the Official Gazette, declare as technical institutions;" 10. Since it is int....
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....tution imparting technical education as a deemed university and not do any such thing by itself. Likewise, clause (u) of the same provision which envisages the setting up of a National Board of Accreditation to periodically conduct evaluation of technical institutions or programmes on the basis of guidelines, norms and standards specified by it to make recommendation to it, or to the Council, or to the Commission or to other bodies, regarding recognition or derecognition of the institution or the programme. All these vitally important aspects go to show that AICTE created under the Act is not intended to be an authority either superior to or supervise and control the universities and thereby superimpose itself upon such universities merely for the reason that it is imparting teaching in technical education or programmes in any of its departments or units. A careful scanning-through of the provisions of the AICTE Act and the provisions of the UGC Act in juxtaposition, will show that the role of AICTE vis-à-vis the universities is only advisory, recommendatory and a guiding factor and thereby subserves the cause of maintaining appropriate standards and qualitative norms and no....
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....as may be prescribed, as envisaged in Section 11 of the AICTE Act. 20. All these vitally important aspects go to show that the Council (AICTE) created under the AICTE Act is not intended to be an authority either superior to or to supervise and control the universities and thereby superimpose itself upon such universities merely for the reason that they are imparting teaching in technical education or programmes in any of their departments or units. A careful scanning of the provisions of the AICTE Act and the provisions of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 in juxtaposition will show that the role of AICTE vis-à-vis the universities is only advisory, recommendatory and one of providing guidance, thereby subserving the cause of maintaining appropriate standards and qualitative norms and not as authority empowered to issue and enforce any sanction by itself. Reference can be made to the judgments of this Court in the case of Adarsh Shiksha Mahavidyalaya v. Subhash Rahangdale [(2012) 2 SCC 425], State of Tamil Nadu v. Adhiyaman Educational & Research Institute [(1995) 4 SCC 104] and Bharathidasan Univesity v. All India Council for Technical Education [(2001) 8 SCC 67....
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....AICTE Act and the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 that the role of AICTE vis-à-vis universities is only advisory, recommendatory and one of providing guidance and has no authority empowering it to issue or enforce any sanctions by itself. It is rightly pointed out from the affidavit filed by UGC as directed by this Court in these cases on the question of affiliated colleges to the university, that the affidavit is very mechanical and it has simply and gratuitously without foundation, added as technical institutions including affiliated colleges without any legal foundation. In paragraphs 13, 14, 15 and 19 of the Affidavit filed by the UGC and the assertion made in paragraph 23 is without any factual foundation, which reads as under: "That it is further submitted that affiliated colleges are distinct and different than the constituent colleges. Thus, it cannot be said that constituent colleges also include affiliated colleges." Further, the assertion of UGC as rightly pointed out by Dr. Dhavan in the written submission filed on behalf of the appellant in CA No. 1145 of 2004 that the claim that UGC does not have any provision to grant approval of technical institutio....
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....he university also, otherwise, the object and purpose of the UGC Act enacted by the Parliament will be defeated. The enactment of UGC Act is also traceable to Entry 66 of List I. The aforesaid provisions of the UGC Act have been examined by this Court with reference to the provisions of AICTE Act in Bharathidasan University's case. Therefore, it has clearly laid down the principle that the role of the AICTE Act is only advisory in nature and is confined to submitting report or giving suggestions to the UGC for the purpose of implementing its suggestions to maintain good standards in technical education in terms of definition under Section 2(h) of the AICTE Act and to see that there shall be uniform education standard throughout the country to be maintained which is the laudable object of the AICTE Act for which it is enacted by the Parliament. The provisions of the AICTE Act shall be implemented through the UGC as the universities and its affiliated colleges are all governed by the provisions of the said Act under Section 12A of the UGC Act read with Rules Regulations that will be framed by the UGC in exercise of its power under Sections 25 and 26 of the said Act. Therefore, the co....
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....medical and technical education which call for substantial outlays. While education is one of the most important functions of the Indian State it has no monopoly therein. Private educational institutions - including minority educational institutions - too have a role to play." It has been clearly held that the decision in Unni Krishnan's case in so far as it framed the scheme relating to the grant of admission and the existing of fee, is not correct and the consequent directions given to UGC, AICTE and Medical Council of India, Central Government and the State Government etc. are overruled. It is worthwhile to mention paragraphs 29 and 31 of the UGC Report of the University Education Commission headed by late Dr. S. Radhakrishnan as its Chairman and nine other renowned educationists as its members. The report which is extracted at paragraph 51 in the said T.M.A. Pai case reads thus: "51. A University Education Commission was appointed on 4-11- 1948, having Dr S. Radhakrishnan as its Chairman and nine other renowned educationists as its members. The terms of reference, inter alia, included matters relating to means and objects of university education and research in India and mai....
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....to different aided colleges by virtue of merit, coupled with the reservation policy of the State. The merit may be determined either through a common entrance test conducted by the university or the Government followed by counselling, or on the basis of an entrance test conducted by individual institutions - the method to be followed is for the university or the Government to decide. The authority may also devise other means to ensure that admission is granted to an aided professional institution on the basis of merit. In the case of such institutions, it will be permissible for the Government or the university to provide that consideration should be shown to the weaker sections of the society." At paragraph 72 in the said judgment, it has been held that once aid is granted to a private professional educational institution, the Government or the State agency, as a condition of the grant of aid, can put fetters on the freedom in the matter of administration and management of the institution. It is stated as under: "72. .............The State, which gives aid to an educational institution, can impose such conditions as are necessary for the proper maintenance of the high standards....
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....efore, the autonomy of the university is recognized in the said case and the object and intendment of the Parliament in excluding the universities from the definition of technical institution as defined under Section 2(h) of the AICTE Act makes is explicitly clear, after scanning the definition of education institution with reference to the exclusion of universities and Sections 10, 11, 12 and 13 of the AICTE Act. The object of the statutory enactment made by the Parliament has been succinctly examined by this Court in Bharathidasan University and Parshvanath Charitable Trust cases referred to supra therefore they have rightly made observations that the role of the AICTE Act in view of the UGC Act and the powers and functions conferred by the UGC for controlling and regulating the universities and its affiliated colleges has been explicitly conferred upon the UGC. Hence, they have been given the power to regulate such universities and regulations in relation to granting sanctions/approvals and also maintaining educational standards and over-seeing the prescription of the fee structure including the admission of students in various courses and programmes that will be conducted by th....
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....g information embodied in software) other than information in the public domain, that is capable of being used in- (i) the development production or use of any goods or software; (ii) the development of, or the carrying out of, an industrial or commercial activity or the provision of a service of any kind. [Section 4(1), The Weapons of Mass Destruction and their delivery system (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities Act, 2005]." The New Shorter Oxford English dictionary defines 'Technology' as: "1(a) The branch of knowledge that deals with the mechanical arts of applied sciences; a discourse or treaties on (one of) these subjects, orig. on an art or arts. (b). The terminology of a particular subject; technical nomenclature. 2(a). The mechanical arts or applied sciences collectively; the application of (any of) these. (b). A particular mechanical art or applied science." Further, 'Technology', in Advanced Law Lexicon is defined as "any special or technical knowledge or any special service required for any purpose whosoever by an industrial concern under any foreign collaboration, and includes designs, drawings, publication and technical personnel." and 'knowledge' is defined in ....
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....(g) of the AICTE Act and non production of any material by the AICTE to show that MBA course is a technical education, we hold that MBA course is not a technical course within the definition of the AICTE Act and in so far as reasons assigned for MCA course being 'technical education', the same does not hold for MBA course. Therefore, for the reasons assigned while answering the points which are framed in so far as the MCA course is concerned, the approval from the AICTE is not required for obtaining permission and running MBA course by the appellant colleges. 44. So far as point nos.4 and 5 are concerned, the amended Regulation Nos. 8(c) and 8(iv) of 2000 were introduced by the AICTE in exercise of its power under section 10(k) of AICTE Act by adding the MBA and MCA courses within the purview of the provisions of AICTE as it is included in the Regulation as a technical education. It is the case made out by learned counsel for the appellant Mr. Prashant Bhushan that the amended Regulation has not been placed before the Parliament which is mandatory as per the provisions of Section 24 of the AICTE Act, the said contention has not been disputed by the AICTE in these cases. The provis....