CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO.6009 of 2010 (O&M) -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO.6009 of 2010 (O&M) DATE OF DECISION: AUGUST 13 , 2010 Pt. Ram Narain Shastri Education Society, Rohtak .....Petitioner VERSUS The State of Haryana and others ....Respondents CORAM:- HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE RANJIT SINGH PRESENT: Mr. Sunil Chadha,Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. Sunil Nehra, Sr. DAG, Haryana for the State. Mr. S.K. Sharma, Advocate, for respondent Nos.3 & 4. None for respondent No.5. **** RANJIT SINGH, J. The petitioner is a registered society, which has set up an Institution named R.N. Egineering and Management College for Women at Village Markrauli Kalan, Rohtak-Ghona Road, Tehsil Rohtak, Haryana. The petitioner-society has opened this institution in response to an advertisement made in this regard. Respondent No.3 issued a Letter of Intent in its favour. Thereafter, the petitioner society has created necessary infrastructure and was ready to grant CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO.6009 of 2010 (O&M) -2- admission for the session 2008-09 in the newly established institution. The petitioner-society deposited a demand draft of Rs.40000/- to avail the visit of expert committee for conducting inspection. FDR of Rs.28 lacs was also arranged. The petitioner- society was granted approval on 27.6.2008 for running the courses in the following degrees of B.E./B.Tech. with annual intake of students as mentioned against each :- 1. Computer Science & Engineering - 90 2. Electrical Engineering - 60 3. Electronics & Communication Egg. - 60 4. Information Technology - 90 On this basis, AICTE granted approval for establishing the college for women with an annual intake of 300 students, which was affiliated to Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak. The petitioner-society claims to have spent huge amount of Rs.7 crores for setting up this Institution. It has now come to realize the scenario of running an Engineering Institution exclusively for women, is not very viable. The reason perhaps in this regard is that the girls are not much interested in doing B.Tech. Courses i.e. Engineering, especially so when the institution exclusively run for the girl students. On the other hand, the institutions, which have a provision of co- education are on a much better footing. Keeping this aspect in view, the petitioner-society had submitted a representation on 11.3.2010 for considering its case for converting this Women College to a co- educational institute. AICTE was, accordingly, approached and informed that the institution has completed the requirement of land CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO.6009 of 2010 (O&M) -3- and now owns 10.51 acres. Institution has also arranged another sum of Rs.7 lacs as fixed deposit, in addition to 28 lacs, which had earlier been arranged. The petitioner-society, however, was informed on 23.3.2010 that its representation has been turned down on the ground that a decision has been taken that in future no application for conversion of Women Institution into Co-Educational Institution shall be entertained. Faced with the situation, the petitioner-society has filed the present writ petition for issuing direction to the respondents to consider and grant the prayer for converting this institution to a Co- Educational Institution as otherwise it is not viable to run this institution exclusively for girls. Though earlier reply was filed and the action of declining the request was justified, when the writ petition came up for hearing today, Mr. Sharma has brought to the notice of the Court another decision taken by the Council (AICTE) in its emergent meeting held on 13.7.2010 to reconsider their earlier policy of not converting girls institutions into co-educational institutions. The Council has now taken a decision that all those women institutions, which are not able to secure an adequate admission and are unable to enroll 40% of the women students exclusively for two to three years can be considered for being converted to co-educational institutions for optimal utilization of the resources as per the prevailing norms of the Co- Educational Institution in the light of change in the policy decision. The case of the petitioner for consideration afresh in the light of this policy is made out. CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO.6009 of 2010 (O&M) -4- Mr. Chadha appearing for the petitioner-Society will submit that the petitioner is well covered by the norms and for the last two years, the petitioner has not been able to admit the students more than 40% of the sanctioned strength. During session 2008-09, number of students were 77, whereas the figure decreased to 40 in the year 2009-10. This figure is alarming low for the year 2010-11 being 12 only. Since the AICTE has already taken a policy decision to consider the case of conversion of such like institution to a co- educational institution, the present writ petition deserves to be disposed of with direction to AICTE to re-consider the application/prayer made by the petitioner-society in the light of changed policy. Mr. Chadha is justified in submitting that issue is required to be dealt with urgency. The counselling for admission is already in progress and last counselling is to commence from 18.8.2010 onwards and would come to an end on 26.8.2010. Mr. Sharma appearing for the Council says that the respondent-Council would be able to decide the issue within a period of two weeks. This may lead to prejudice the right of the petitioner-institution to admit the students for this year in case the prayer for converting this institution is finally granted. It is, accordingly, impressed upon Mr. Sharma to request the Council to consider the case of the petitioner urgently and it will be highly appreciated if the request of the petitioner can be disposed of by 20.8.2010. The writ petition is disposed of in the above terms. This of course would be subject to the requirement of the petitioner- CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO.6009 of 2010 (O&M) -5- institution submitting the certificate from the concerned University Mr. Chadha says that he will complete all the requirements by Monday i.e. 16.8.2010. Order dasti. August 13 , 2010 ( RANJIT SINGH ) monika JUDGE