- (1.) Heard learned Counsel for the parties. The Petitioners have been granted recognition by the National Council for Teacher Education ("NCTE" for short) for the year 2015-2016 for conducting Teacher education Course/D.El.Ed.(BTC) Course (hereinafter referred to as "the BTC course"). On the ground that the Academic Session of the year 2015-2016 is yet to commence and such commencement will be inordinately delayed as the Academic Session of the previous year i.e. 2014-2015 is yet to start these writ petitions have been filed for ante-dating the recognition of the Petitioner-Colleges either to the Academic Session 2013-2014 or Academic Session 2014-2015, as may be.
(2.) The BTC course is a two year course divided into four semesters. Apart from the handful of Government colleges where the BTC course is imparted there are large number of Private colleges offering the said course which is divided into four semesters. Under the NCTE norms, a minimum of 200 working days for each year of the course is mandatory.
(3.) The procedure and manner in which the course commences, in short, is that after recognition is granted by the NCTE, affiliation by the State Body i.e. State Council for Educational Research and Training ["SCERT" for short] in the present cases, is required to be granted after inspection of the availability of infrastructure, etc. in the College(s) in question. Once such affiliation is granted the process of admission through counseling is required to be undergone. Each Private college is entitled to admit a maximum of 50 students in each semester which number is fixed at 200 students for the Government Colleges.;