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VIIT Pharmacy College and Another v. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University and Another

Writ Petition (Civil) · 2021 INSC 255Decided 15 Apr 2021
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 390 of 2021
Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman · Justice B.R. Gavai · Justice Hrishikesh Roy

Background

Two pharmacy colleges had been granted approval by the Pharmacy Council of India to run B. Pharma courses for 2020-21, but the Uttar Pradesh government had separately introduced a policy restricting the number of pharmacy colleges per district, which blocked their affiliation from the affiliating university. The colleges challenged that restrictive policy in the Allahabad High Court and won, with the High Court setting aside the policy as applied to them and directing a fresh decision on their affiliation applications; despite this, the university still refused to grant affiliation or let their students sit the B. Pharma examinations, even while allowing a similarly-placed college's students to appear.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court relied on its own earlier ruling in Pharmacy Council of India v. Dr. S.K. Toshiwal Educational Trust, which held that in matters of pharmacy education, the Pharmacy Act and PCI's norms must prevail over inconsistent state policy. Since the PCI had already approved the colleges' intake capacity, the High Court had already struck down the restrictive state policy in their favour, and the State Government itself had since granted conditional affiliation, and since the university did not dispute any of the petitioners' factual averments, the Court found no justification for continued refusal. It directed the university to grant affiliation to the petitioner colleges for 2020-21 and to allow their students to sit the special examinations.

Lesson Learnt

Once a regulatory and judicial process has already resolved an eligibility dispute in an institution's favour, an affiliating authority cannot keep withholding the consequential benefit (here, affiliation and exam access) without any valid, disputed justification: courts will enforce compliance to prevent students from being made to suffer for administrative inertia.

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

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