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Sri Sai RR Institute of Pharmacy v. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University & Anr.

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2021 INSC 319Decided 6 Jul 2021
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 446 of 2021
Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman · Justice K.M. Joseph · Justice B.R. Gavai

Background

Two pharmacy colleges had already obtained approval from the Pharmacy Council of India and conditional affiliation from the Uttar Pradesh state government, after separately winning earlier litigation in the High Court over a state policy that had initially blocked them. Despite this, the affiliating university refused to grant them formal affiliation or let their students sit the first-year B. Pharma examinations, citing only that an AICTE-prescribed procedural timeline had technically lapsed.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that the facts of both writ petitions were essentially identical to an earlier case (VIIT Pharmacy College vs. the same University) that it had already decided in the colleges' favour just months before, on the basis that Pharmacy Act approvals and state-government affiliation decisions must be respected by the university. Since neither college's qualifying facts were seriously disputed, the Court directed the University to grant affiliation for the 2020-21 academic year and allow the students to sit the special examinations being organized for that year.

Lesson Learnt

Students should not be denied the benefit of their institution's valid regulatory and government approvals merely because of a missed administrative deadline, particularly where an identical precedent has already resolved the same question.

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

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