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Institution of Mechanical Engineers (India) Through its Chairman v. State of Punjab & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 894Decided 13 Aug 2019
Civil Appeal No. 17922 of 2017
Justice Uday Umesh Lalit · Justice Deepak Gupta

Background

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (India), a registered society, conducted its own examinations and awarded a certificate ("AMIE") that various government notifications since 1976 had treated as equivalent to a formal engineering degree for government job recruitment. The Punjab and Haryana High Court held that this certificate could not be treated as equivalent to a degree in Engineering, since under the UGC Act only specified universities or Parliament-empowered institutions may confer degrees. The Institution filed a miscellaneous application in the Supreme Court (within a pending civil appeal) challenging that finding.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that under Section 22 of the UGC Act, the power to confer or grant a "degree" belongs only to universities or institutions specifically empowered by Parliament: the Institution, a mere registered society, did not qualify, and the Ministry's informal administrative "equivalence" letters could not get around this statutory restriction by a back door. The Court invoked the principle that what cannot be done directly cannot be done indirectly, and upheld the High Court's finding that the Institution's membership certificate was not equivalent to an engineering degree. However, as a one-time equity measure, the Court carved out an exception for students who had already enrolled up to 31.05.2013 (the date until which the government's own notifications had recognized the equivalence), allowing only those candidates' certificates to still count as degree-equivalent for Central Government employment. The application was otherwise dismissed, with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

A government department's administrative notification recognizing a private body's certificate as "equivalent to a degree" cannot override a statute like the UGC Act that reserves degree-granting power to specific institutions: such administrative equivalence can be fragile and may not survive judicial scrutiny, except for those who already relied on it before it was withdrawn.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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