CWP No.8757 of 2009 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. DATE OF DECISION: 05.3.2010 Sant Baba Hari Singh Memorial Khalsa College of Education, Mahilpur, District Hoshiarpur ...Petitioner VERSUS Punjab University, Chandigarh & Anr. …Respondents CORAM HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE PERMOD KOHLI PRESENT: Mr.KS Dadwal, Advocate for the petitioner Mr.Ashish Rawal, Advocate for Mr.Anupam Gupta, Advocate Mr.RS Kundu, Addl.A.G., Haryana Permod Kohli, J. (Oral) Keeping in view the prayer made and with the consent of the counsel, this petition is disposed of at motion stage. The petitioner is a charitable institution. No grant-in-aid is given to the B.Ed institution and only the affiliation has been granted by the NCTE, Punjab Government and Punjab University, however, the financial liabilities are being borne out by the Sikh Educational Council. The B.Ed college of the petitioner came into existence with intake capacity of 100 seats in the year 2006. However, in the year 2008-2009, the seats have been CWP No.8757 of 2009 2 increased to 200. Against the intake capacity of 200 seats with the petitioner, only 92 seats were filled up through the counselling by the Punjabi University, Patiala. However, 108 seats remained unfilled. Similarly situated colleges where certain seats remained unfilled, filed CWP No.17284 of 2008 which was allowed by a Division Bench of this Court vide its judgment dated 21.11.2008. As per the aforesaid judgment, the petitioner-College admitted 108 students and the information to this effect was sent to the University on 6.12.2008 vide Annexure P-1. Vide letter dated 11.12.2008 (Anexure P-2) issued to all the Principals of the Colleges, respondent no.2-University decided that all the Colleges, including the petitioner-College shall pay late fee of Rs.1155/- per student. The demand of late fee was reiterated by the respondents vide letter dated 6.1.2009 (Annexure P-3). The grievance of the petitioner is that since the petitioner-College admitted 108 students as per the aforesaid judgment of this Court, respondents cannot charge the late fee. It is agreed to by the learned counsel for the parties that the matter is squarely covered by judgment dated 21.11.2008 passed by the Division Bench of this Court in CWP No.17284 of 2008 and Civil Writ Petition Nos.11272, 11287 of 2009 and 16743 of 2009 by this Court, wherein following directions have been issued:- i) The petitioners will issue separate Public Notices notifying un-filled seats available with them for selection through the counselling. The notice shall be published in two English national newspapers and two others in Vernacular ( one Hindi and one CWP No.8757 of 2009 3 Punjabi) having wide circulation on 19.1.2010 and 20.1.2010. Last date for receipt of applications shall be 22.1.2010. The counselling will be held from 23.1.2010 to 24.1.2010. List of the candidates who were found eligible for the counselling shall be submitted to the University on 25.1.2010. The University shall conduct Physical Efficiency Test of such students in the University Campus on 27th and 28 of January, 2010 which fact shall be notified by the petitioners in the public notice itself. Such of the students who are found fit and eligible in the Physical Efficiency Test by the University shall be admitted to the respective Colleges between 29th and 30th of January, 2010. The admissions will be made on the basis of merit in the qualifying examinations. The minimum eligibility criterion as notified in the Prospectus shall be strictly ad-hered to and there shall be no relaxation of any kind in the minimum eligibility criterion. It is made clear that if subsequently at any stage, it is found that students have been admitted in violation of the eligibility criterion, not only CWP No.8757 of 2009 4 the admission of the students shall be liable to be cancelled and quashed, by the University but the petitioner-institutions shall also be liable to pay a compensation of Rs.50,000/- per student admitted in violation of the norms of the University. ii) After 30.1.2010, no students, irrespective of the availability of the seats in any of the affiliated colleges, shall be admitted. iii) The petitioner-institutions will make admissions on the basis of inter-se merit of the applicants who may apply and seek admission pursuant to the Public Notice issued by the petitioners. The Colleges will not charge any extra fee other than the one prescribed by the University/Government. iv) The fee shall be deposited by the candidates in accordance with the norms/procedure already prescribed by the respondent-University/Government. v) It will also be notified in the Public Notice that the students who will be granted admission will deposit the fee before or on 30.1.2010 in accordance with the norms/procedure prescribed by the respondent- CWP No.8757 of 2009 5 University/Government in this regard. vi) The Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak-respondent no.3 will nominate one representative for each counselling to be conducted by the petitioner Colleges affiliated to the concerned University. Such nomination shall be made before the date notified hereinabove for counselling/admission by the colleges. If the Respondent-University fails to nominate its representative or if the nominated representative fails to approach of Colleges concerned, the petitioners/Colleges may proceed to hold counselling/admission in absence of such representative with prior intimation to the respondent-University in this regard. vii)All the Colleges after making admissions will submit a list of admitted candidates along with their details and merit position to the Respondent-University, within a period of one week from the date of such admissions along with proof of payment of fee and the respondent-University shall have the right to conduct scrutiny in accordance with the norms/procedure laid down by it. CWP No.8757 of 2009 6 viii)The petitioners shall hold extra classes to complete 180 days requirement of the University, without charging any extra amount from the students and comply with the other norms for examination for the course. It shall be open to the University to conduct an inspection regarding the extra classes to be conducted by the petitioners- institutions. The University shall also issue appropriate directions in this regard. In view of the directions contained in para (iii) of the judgment of the Hon'ble Division Bench dated 21.11.2008 no extra fee is chargeable by the Colleges, except prescribed by Govt. The action of the respondents-University is thus not sustainable in law. Consequently, the writ petition is allowed and the letters (Annexures P- 2, P-3, P-5, P-6 and P-8) demanding the late admission fee of Rs.1155/- per student are hereby quashed. (PERMOD KOHLI) JUDGE 5.3.2010 MFK