TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2013 (4) TMI 728
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.... provisions of All India Council for Technical 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....
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....f the learned single Judge by passing impugned common judgment 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 penden....
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....el on behalf of the appellants have urged the following legal contentions:- The High Court has erred in holding that 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 na....
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....o University impart education in different courses run by University in which the students have to pass the prescribed examination of the University 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 Chance....
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.... is vested with the University itself and it cannot be said that for certain type of courses the control will be with the AICTE. Further, the High Court has failed to notice the fact that the 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....
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....ticularly, when the AICTE Act does not contain any evidence of an intention to belittle and destroy the authority or autonomy of other statutory bodies, having their own assigned roles to perform. Further 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 abovem....
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....nted to such college in relation to such similar course of study by that or any other University. Sub-Section (6) speaks that in case of termination of affiliation of any college under sub-section (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, lea....
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....to supra issued by the AICTE shows that regulation of governing council, infrastructure such as land and in matters of salary and employment of staff in the affiliated colleges are totally without jurisdiction 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 Unive....
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....n of repugnancy under Article 254 (2) of the Constitution as it does not arise for the reason that the law in relation to establishment of Bharathidasan University and other University in respect of which member 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 s....
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....chnology' to bring within the definition of the "technical education" as defined in Section 2(g) of the AICTE Act, is not only in contravention of the settled principles of interpretation of statutes but also in contravention 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 whi....
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....arathidasan University is regulated and controlled by the UGC constituted under the provisions of the UGC Act, Rules and Regulations. The relevant provisions of the UGC Act cover the institutions and its constituents colleges 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 univers....
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.... to university or imparting education to the students on behalf of the university to seek AICTE's approval for conducting MCA course when no such approval is required for the university for the aforesaid purpose will be contrary to 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 ....
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....engineering and technology are two separate branches of study. Even if, 'engineering technology' is considered to be a single expression that will not reduce the width and scope of the subject, it will nevertheless indicate both the branches 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 th....
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.... noted but their correctness was not considered. Also, the Bharathidasan University case did not make any observation about their actual accuracy and in the said case this Court did not go into the question as to whether the AICTE Act would prevail 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 an....
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.... technical institutions and for introduction of new courses or programmes, taking steps to prevent commercialisation of technical education, inspection of technical institutions, withholding or discontinuing grants in respect of courses and taking such other steps 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 le....
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....icants than the available situations/seats, the State authority is not prevented from laying down higher standards or qualifications than those laid down by the Centre or the Central authority to short-list the applicants. When the State authority does so, it does not encroach upon Entry 66 of the Union 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, ....
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....t above, this Court clearly held that because of Section 10(k) of the Central Act which vested the powers of granting approval in the Council, the T.N. Act of 1976 and the University Act, 1923 could not deal with any questions of "approval" for establishment of technical institutions. All that was necessary was that under the Regulations, the AICTE Council 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 ....
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.... as used in paragraphs 12 and 15 of the Bharathidasan University's judgment refers to technical institutions which are started by the university itself or as an adjunct to the university or affiliated colleges or are not started, managed and governed by the university itself, whereas constituent institutions are started, managed and governed by the university itself under powers given 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....
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.... Institute case and Jaya Gokul Educational Trust case is applicable to the fact situation of the concerned colleges of the appellants? Answer to the points framed above 36. Point Nos. 1 and 2 are answered in favour of the appellants by assigning the following reasons:- For this purpose, it would be very much necessary to extract the definition of 'technical institution', 'university' and 'technical education' in Sections 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 un....
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....evelopment, or both, of any specified activities of such Universities] or for any other general or specified purpose: Provided that in making any grant to any such University, the Commission shall give due consideration to the development of the University concerned, its financial needs, the standard attained by it and the national purposes which it may serve, 2[(cc) allocate and disburse out of the Fund of the Commission, such grants to institution deemed to be Universities in pursuance of a declaration made by the Central Government 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 an....
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....ard of such qualification. (c) "prosecution" in relation to a course of study, includes promotion from one part or stage of the course of study to another part or stage of the course of study. (d) "qualification" means a degree or any other qualification awarded by a university. (e) "regulations" means regulations made under this Act. (f) "specified course of study" means a course of study in respect of which regulation of the nature mentioned in sub-section (2) have been made. (g) "student" includes a person seeking admission as a student; (h) "university" means a university or institution referred to in subsection (1) of 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 ....
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.... clause (f) or clause (g) of section 26,] the Commission, after taking into consideration the cause, if any, shown by the university [for Such failure or contraventions] may withhold from the University the grants proposed to be made out of the Fund of the Commission." 37. In Bharathidasan University's case, the question which fell for consideration is referred to in the first paragraph of the judgment upon which strong reliance is placed by the learned senior counsel for the respondent Mr. Rakesh Dwivedi to substantiate his submission that the ratio laid down in Bharathidasan University's case (supra) is in relation to the question raised regarding the university created under the Bharathidasan Universities Act to start a department 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....
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.... assumed objects or desirabilities, the courts cannot adorn the mantle of the legislature. It is hard to ignore the legislative intent to give definite meaning to words employed in the Act and adopt an interpretation which would tend to do violence to the express language as well as the plain meaning and patent aim and object underlying the various other provisions of the Act. Even in endeavouring to maintain the object and spirit of the law to achieve the goal fixed by the legislature, the courts must go by the guidance of the words used and not on certain preconceived notions of ideological structure and scheme underlying the law. In the Statement of Objects and Reasons for the AICTE Act, it is specifically stated that AICTE was originally 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....
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....d (u) wherein there is conspicuous omission of reference to universities, reference being made to technical institutions alone. It is equally important to see that when AICTE is empowered to inspect or cause to inspect any technical institution in clause (p) of sub-section (1) of Section 10 without any reservation whatsoever, when it comes to the question of universities it is confined and limited to ascertaining the financial needs or its standards of teaching, examination and research. The inspection may be made or cause to be made of any department or departments only and that too, in such manner as may be prescribed as envisaged in Section 11 of the Act. Clause (t) of sub-section (1) of Section 10 envisages AICTE to only advise UGC for declaring any institution 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 bo....
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.... AICTE as also its duties and obligations to take steps towards fulfillment of the same. One such power as envisaged in Section 10(1)(k) is to "grant approval for starting new technical institutions and for introduction of new courses or programmes in consultation with the agencies concerned". It is important to see that the AICTE is empowered to inspect or cause to inspect any technical institution in clause (p) of sub-section (1) of Section 10 without any reservation whatsoever. However, when it comes to the question of universities, it is confined and limited to ascertaining the financial needs or its standards of teaching, examination and research. The inspection may be made or caused to be made of any department or departments only and that too, in such a manner 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 programm....
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....ging it to the notice of UGC. In that background, this Court in Bharathidasan University case made it very clear by making the observation that it has examined the scope of the enactment as to whether the AICTE Act prevails over the UGC Act or the fact of competent entries fall in Entry 66 List I vis-à-vis Entry 25 of List III of the VII Schedule of the Constitution. A cumulative reading of the aforesaid paragraphs of Bharathidasan University's case which are extracted above makes it very clear that this Court has exempted universities, its colleges, constituent institutions and units from seeking prior approval from the AICTE. Also, from the reading of paragraphs 19 and 20 of Parashvanath Chartitable Trust case it is made clear after careful scanning of the provisions of the 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 universi....
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.... cases which refers to the phrase affiliation together with its grammatical variation included in relation to a college, recognition of such college by, association of such college with, and admission of such college to the privileges of universities. A careful reading of sub-sections (2)(c), (3), (4) and (5) of Section 12A of the UGC Act makes it abundantly clear about colleges which are required to be affiliated to run the courses for which sanction/approval will be accorded by the university or under the control and supervision of such universities. Therefore, affiliated colleges to the university/universities are part of them and the exclusion of university in the definition of technical institution as defined in Section 2(h) of the AICTE Act must be extended to the affiliated colleges to the 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 ro....
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....ortant features viz. the right of a private unaided institution to give admission and to fix the fee. By framing this scheme, which has led to the State Governments legislating in conformity with the scheme, the private institutions are indistinguishable from the government institutions; curtailing all the essential features of the right of administration of a private unaided educational institution can neither be called fair nor reasonable. Even in the decision in Unni Krishnan case it has been observed by Jeevan Reddy, J., at p. 749, para 194, as follows: "194. The hard reality that emerges is that private educational institutions are a necessity in the present-day context. It is not possible to do without them because the governments are in no position to meet the demand - particularly in the sector of 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....
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.... Liberal education.-All education is expected to be liberal. It should free us from the shackles of ignorance, prejudice and unfounded belief. If we are incapable of achieving the good life, it is due to faults in our inward being, to the darkness in us. The process of education is the slow conquering of this darkness. To lead us from darkness to light, to free us from every kind of domination except that of reason, is the aim of education." Para 71 of the said decision, which deals with the rights of the private aided non-minority professional institutions, is extracted hereunder: "Private aided professional institutions (non-minority) 71. While giving aid to professional institutions, it would be permissible for the authority giving aid to prescribe by rules or regulations, the conditions on the basis of which admission will be granted 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 ....
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....lly, the aid that is granted is relatable to the pay and allowances of the teaching staff. In addition, the management of the private aided institutions has to incur revenue and capital expenses. Such aided institutions cannot obtain that extent of autonomy in relation to management and administration as would be available to a private unaided institution, but at the same time, it cannot also be treated as an educational institution departmentally run by Government or as a wholly owned and controlled government institution and interfere with constitution of the governing bodies or thrusting the staff without reference to management." 40. A reading of the aforesaid paragraphs extracted from TMA Pai's case makes it very clear that in view of decision of the eleven Judges Constitution Bench of this Court, the scheme framed under the Unni Krishnan's case has been overruled. Therefore, 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 i....
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.... defines 'Technology' as: "any information (including 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. Explanation, when technology is described wholly or partly by reference to the uses to which it (or the goods to which it relates) may be put, it shall include services which are provided or used, or which are capable of being used, in the development, production or use of such technology or goods. [Weapons of Mass Destruction and their delivery system...]. Means a branch of knowledge; the knowledge and means used to produce the material necessities of a society...." Further, Encyclopedia Law Lexicon presents 'Technology' as: "any information (including 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 acti....
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.... products." 42. The above meanings of the words 'technology' and 'engineering' as per the dictionaries referred to supra would clearly go to show that MCA also comes within the definition of technology. Therefore, the contention that technical education includes MCA as raised by the learned senior counsel on behalf of the AICTE stand to its reasoning and logic in view of the nature of MCA course which is being imparted to the students at post graduation level which is being conducted by the institutions, constituent colleges and affiliated colleges to the universities. The same is a technical education and therefore, it comes within the definition of technical education but for its proper conduct of courses and regulation the role of AICTE must be advisory and for the same, a note shall be given to the UGC for its implementation by it but not the AICTE. Accordingly, point no.3 is answered in favour of respondent AICTE. 43. As per definition of 'technical education' under Section 2(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 A....