New Delhi, February 6
Showing compassion for the students of an electronics and communication course of a private engineering college in Faridkot, the Supreme Court today directed the All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and Punjab Technical University to ensure that their future was not affected.
A Bench comprising Mr Justice S. Rajendra Babu and Mr Justice G.P. Mathur said though the AICTE was entitled to take necessary action against the Adesh Institute of Engineering at Faridkot, it should protect the interest of the students admitted to the course in 2000-01 because they had completed two years of studies when the council questioned its approval.
The order came on an appeal by the AICTE against the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s judgement directing it to grant approval to the course while allowing a petition of the student challenging the AICTE order.
Clarifying that though it was not approving the order of the high court, which had gone “too far” on the question of recognition, the Supreme Court said Punjab Technical University and the AICTE would take appropriate steps for the rehabilitation of the students.
The court further said it was not restraining the AICTE from taking the action required against the institute.
Additional Solicitor-General Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for AICTE, submitted that the institute, which started various engineering courses
in 1997-98, had admitted the students for the course in 2000-01 without approval from the council.
He said the AICTE had declined to grant recognition to the course because the institute lacked the required infrastructure. “This fact was also brought to the notice of the university, which admitted it,” he said.
The institute’s counsel, Mr Ranjit Kumar, however, said the admissions to the course had been made on the basis of a brochure brought out by the university in 2000, stating that the course was approved by the AICTE.
Since the AICTE had later declined to grant approval to it, no further admissions for the course were made during the subsequent academic years, he said.
