C.W.P. No.19 of 2011 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. DATE OF DECISION : 20.1.2011 1. C.W.P. No.19 of 2011 Association of Educational Colleges(Regd.) Haryana versus Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra and another 2. C.W.P. No.22652 of 2010 Haryana Educational Society and others versus State of Haryana and others. CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE MAHESH GROVER Present:- Shri R.K.Malik, Senior Advocate with Shri Rakesh Nehra, Advocate for the petitioner(in C.W.P. No.19 of 2011). Shri Jagat Singh, Advocate for petitioner(in CWP 22652/2010). Shri S.C.Sibal, Senior Advocate with Shri Ravinder Rana, Advocate. Shri Sunil Nehra, Senior D.A.G. Haryana. MAHESH GROVER, J. By this order, I propose to dispose of C.W.P. Nos.19 of 2011 and 22652 of 2010 together, as they involve commonality of facts. The petitioners in C.W.P. No.19 of 2011 -2- C.W.P. No.19 of 2011 and the related petitions are a cluster of colleges engaged in imparting education and primarily dealing with the Bachelor of Education courses. Collectively, the colleges have a substantial chunk of seats which the respective University to which such colleges are affiliated, have been authorized to fill up. All these colleges have been engaging in repeated litigation since 2008 by filing CWPs with a prayer that they be permitted to fill up the unfilled seats for the B.Ed. course. In the year 2008, the Association filed C.W.P. No.17284 of 2008 which was decided on 21.11.2008. Likewise, in 2009, C.W.P. Nos.11272 and 11287 of 2009 were also filed with a similar prayer and this Court vide the interim order dated 17.9.2009 had permitted these colleges to fill up the vacant seats. The Kurukshetra University issued a prospectus wherein it was mentioned that no admission shall be made after 15.12.2010 but after this date, many seats still remained vacant and the University once again issued a notification in various newspapers even though the case of the petitioner is that the notification was issued only in The Tribune and Dainik Jagran and by virtue of this notification, a further counseling was held on 20.12.2010 and 21.12.2010. The grievance of the petitioners is that despite this counseling, more than 1200 seats still remained unfilled and since the publication of the subsequent notification dated 18.12.2010 was made only in The Tribune and in the Dainik Jagran, which has a very limited circulation outside the States of Punjab and Haryana, therefore, the students from beyond these two States were not able to avail of the benefit of counseling and as such more than 1200 seats have remained vacant. It is the further grievance of the petitioners that this is going to cause substantial loss to the private colleges and that the University does not stand to gain anything from allowing the seats to remain unfilled. Besides, the colleges are C.W.P. No.19 of 2011 -3- still closed for winter vacation upto 17.1.2011 and, therefore, no loss in terms of the academic session is likely to be caused to the students in the eventuality of fresh counseling being held. With this prayer, and with reference to the earlier directions given by this Court with emphasis on the extract given out below, the petitioners have prayed that they be permitted to fill up the vacancies after the University issues another notification for a fresh counseling :- “Suffice it to say that the situation with which we are faced is not attributable to the Colleges where seats have remained unfilled. It is on the contrary attributable to the University because of whose failure to make specific provisions for filling of the excess seats we have a spate of writ petitions before us. The next question then is whether this Court should permit admissions or let the available seats go waste, with out of the two options would serve the ends of justice is the only question that detained us. If one were to adopt a pedantic and hyper technical approach, one could say that admissions need not be made at this stage as the University's apprehension of dilution of academic standards and disturbance of academic calendar should not be disregarded. The wisdom behind that approach however, appears outweighed by the compelling need to avoid the wastage of seats and denial of an opportunity to eligible students to get admitted against the same. It is true that academic standards needs to be maintained and academic decisions by expert bodies respected as far as possible, but it is equally true that when admissions are delayed, a certain amount of adjustment can be ought to be C.W.P. No.19 of 2011 -4- made by the institutions as also the affiliating University. These adjustments do not however, necessarily dilute the academic standard as is apprehended by the University in the instant case. The institutions are ready and capable of making up the requisite number of working days by holding special classes for the students, who have joined late. The admission granted at this stage will not also require the University to compromise on the 40 days practice teaching or the percentage of lectures, which a student must have for being declared eligible for taking the examination. It is noteworthy that a candidate admitted to a session has to perform the same standard as is required of the other candidates in order to be declared successful in the examination. If a student, otherwise admitted late, is unable to come up to the standard of the University, he/she will be declared unsuccessful. Super-added to the above is the fact that the number of students who may even now seek admissions, may not be very large to require holding of any test to determine their inter se merit for grant of admission.” Reference was also made to the order of the Hon'ble Supreme Court which is extracted herein below :- “Now we are told that large number of seats are lying vacant and the state exhausted its list of students for admission. In the circumstances the petitioners/applicants who are all approved colleges seek permission for admitting the students by their own method. On the peculiar facts and C.W.P. No.19 of 2011 -5- circumstances, we directed that a fresh centralized counseling be conducted by the State Government to sponsor sufficient number of candidates. The members of petitioner federation who did not participate that entrance test of VYAPAM, may have one more counseling by VYAPAM on or before 20.10.07. If there are vacant seats in the colleges after such counseling VYAPAM such colleges (members of Federation) and all other colleges may fill up those vacant seats by 22.10.07 with the students who possess the requisite qualification as required by the University and concerned professional technical institute like AICTE. I.A.Nos.2,3 and 4 for impleadment/intervention are allowed. The special leave petition is disposed of.” Almost similar are the observations made by this Court in C.W.P. No.14707 of 2009. Upon notice of motion have been issued, the University put in appearance and opposed the prayer of the petitioners. A short affidavit was filed wherein it was stated that the first online counseling for the said course was held on 21.9.2010 to 3.10.2010, second online counseling was held from 9.10.2010 to 19.10.2010 and the third online counseling was held from 22.10.2010 to 29.10.2010. It was made clear in the advertisement and through the website that fresh applications were also invited from the eligible candidates and 4th counseling was held from 13.11.2010 to 20.11.2010. In this counseling also, fresh applications from eligible candidates were invited. Subsequently, on the basis of a letter detailing mechanism for filling up unfilled seats received from the Commissioner of Higher Education, Haryana an advertisement was placed in C.W.P. No.19 of 2011 -6- various newspapers as well as it was displayed on the website and online counseling was again held on 25.11.2010 to 30.11.2010 and 6th online-cum- manual counseling was held from 3.12.2010 to 7.12.2010. Fresh applications were also invited from the eligible candidates. Since some of the colleges are affiliated to the Kurukshetra University, Maharishi Dayanand University and Chaudhary Devi Lal University, Sirsa, the information was given on the website that 7th counseling will be held from 11.12.2010 to 16.12.2010 and the last i.e. 8th counseling was held from 20.12.2010 to 21.12.2010 and in the advertisement given out for these counseling, it was made clear that any candidate who has not even applied earlier, can also join the process of counseling on 15.12.2010 and 20th and 21st of December, 2010. It has further been detailed in the affidavit that 484 colleges within the State of Haryana are recognised by the NCTE for conducting B.Ed. courses. The total sanctioned strength of these colleges is 62744, out of which 61055 have been admitted to the courses in various colleges of Haryana State. The total applications which were received were 89230 out of which 61055 have been admitted and only 1689 seats are lying vacant in all these colleges. In the affidavit, it was also stated that in so far as the quota for the state of Haryana is concerned, it is 85% of the total seats and from this quota, 31627 candidates have been admitted which comes to 51.80% of the candidates from the State of Haryana, whereas the remaining seats i.e. 29428 have been admitted from the students belonging to other states which quota comes out to 48.20%. To clarify the position further, it has also been stated in the affidavit that in the counseling held from 11.12.2010 to 16.12.2010 and 20.12.2010 to 21.12.2010, the total number of students admitted to the course was 4329, out of which 3125 candidates belong to other states and from the State of Haryana, only 1204 candidates were admitted and the percentage was 27.81%. C.W.P. No.19 of 2011 -7- It has lastly been stated in the affidavit that the Vice President of the Association of Educational Colleges, Dr.S.V.Arya on 29.11.2010 has given in writing that the December counseling would be the last and final. This document is also signed by the President and some other members of the association. Learned counsel for the petitioners contends that since the seats are lying vacant and in view of the earlier precedent, they be permitted to fill up the seats more so, when the requisite infrastructure is available and the winter vacation is upto 17.1.2011. He thus, contends that no prejudice is likely to be caused to the University. He further contends that the notification for the last counseling was not widely displayed as the two newspapers The Tribune and Dainik Jagran do not have any circulation outside the States of Punjab and Haryana and thus, the students from outside the State were deprived of the benefit of the extended counseling. Shri S.C.Sibal, learned counsel for the University has, on the other hand, referred to the contents of the affidavit to show that repeated counseling has been held and wide publicity was given online as also in two newspapers and thus, even despite such wide publicity and after repeated counseling, seats have remained vacant, than in such an eventuality, the process of counseling cannot be carried forward endlessly, more so, when the petitioners have admitted before the University in writing that December counseling be considered to be the last. I have heard the learned counsel for the parties. The case of the petitioners for filling up these vacancies at this stage when as many as 8 counselings have taken place over a period of three months, is misplaced. The dates of counseling which have been given in the affidavit and which have been elaborately detailed in the foregoing paragraphs and which have not been denied by the petitiones, reveal that intensive efforts have been made by the University to admit students for the B.Ed. course in all these colleges and the C.W.P. No.19 of 2011 -8- result of the effort is evident when out of a total of 62,744 seats, 61055 seats have been filled up leaving only a total of 1689 seats. The contention of the petitioners that students from outside the State of Haryana have not been able to avail the benefit of counseling, is also belied by the figures given by the University. The response of the students from Haryana and from outside is more or less the same, i.e. 51.80% as against 48.20% from outside. In any eventuality, this was only with reference to the contention that has been raised that the advertisement for the counseling was not publicized widely which prevented the students from outside the State of Haryana to take the counseling. Suffice it to say, that after these eight counselings, if the students have not joined the classes, which counselings were spread out over a period of three months, then it is to be understood that the process cannot go on infinitely and finality at some step has to be accorded to, so as to proceed with the academic session. The filling of seats for educational courses cannot be reduced to an exercise which resembles a sale in a flea market. The petitioners themselves were conscious of this and were aware of the endeavour of the University in resorting to the process of filling up of seats and had given this in writing conceding that the December counseling would be the last. There is no disagreement with the observations which have emanated in the earlier writ petitions but considering the fact that sustained efforts have already been made to fill up the seats, I am of the opinion that for every process, there is a time when it has to be curtains and the University has rightly done so. For the aforesaid reasons, I am of the opinion that the prayer of the petitioners is misplaced and the petitions are without any merit and are dismissed. ( MAHESH GROVER ) January 20, 2011 JUDGE GD WHETHER TO BE REFERRED TO REPORTER? YES/NO C.W.P. No.19 of 2011 -9-