- (1.) This application has been filed by the applicant-State of Rajasthan inter alia with the prayer that calendar/schedule fixed by this Court vide order dated 02.09.2016 in Smt. Jyanki Devi Teacher Training College Vs. The State of Rajasthan and Others (D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 6237/2014) may be modified, so as to extend the date for conveying list of institutions with number of seats to the Coordinator of Admissions-from 30 th March to 9th July, 2019; for declaration of result of admission test-from 25 th May to 31st May, 2019; last date of counselling-from 30 th July to 30th August, 2019; commencement of academic session-from 1 st August to 2nd September, 2019; end of academic session-from 7 th May to 20th May, 2020, so as to ensure completion of 200 working days as per the NCTE Regulations, 2014; completion of annual examination-from 30th May to 30th June, 2020 and declaration of result of annual examination-from 7th July to 30th July, 2020. Dr. Vibhuti Bhushan Sharma, learned Additional Advocate General, appearing on behalf of the applicant-State of Rajasthan, submitted that this Court vide order dated 02.09.2016 had fixed time schedule/calendar of activities for B.Ed. Academic Programme and directed that all the three agencies i.e. State of Rajasthan, NCTE and University of Rajasthan shall follow such calendar strictly without any deviation and violation. In the schedule/calendar, the deadline for obtaining no objection certificate (NOC) from the State Government by the B.Ed. colleges was fixed as 30th March of every academic session. Since the Model Code of Conduct for Parliamentary Elections came into force in the State of Rajasthan on 10th March, 2019, the State Government vide letter dated 13.03.2019, by way of abundant caution, wrote to the Election Commission for their permission citing the aforenoted order of this Court. The Election Commission vide letter dated 19.04.2019 granted permission to the State Government to proceed further in the matter, which letter was received by the department concerned on 26.04.2019 but by that time, the relevant date, i.e. 30.03.2019 had already passed away. The State Government could not process and grant NOC to Institutions, which applied for starting B.Ed. course for the academic session 2019-20. Faced with this situation, the State Government filed an application on 28.05.2019 seeking extension of deadline for granting NOC till 17.06.2019. However, this Court was closed for summer vacations in the month of June, 2019, the application could not be taken up for appropriate orders. Therefore, this application has been filed afresh.
(2.) Mr. M.S. Raghav, learned counsel for the non-applicant- original writ petitioner submitted that the Supreme Court vide order dated 11.06.2019 passed in Gomi Devi Women Teachers Training College Vs. National Council for Teacher Education and Another (Writ Petition (C) No. 541 of 2019), taking note of the fact that the session has yet not commenced, extended the date for grant of recognition fixed by it in Maa Vaishno Devi Mahila Mahavidyalaya Vs. State of Uttar Pradesh and Others, (2013) 2 SCC 617 by two weeks. The Supreme Court later vide order dated 17.06.2019 passed in Choudhary Teachers Training College Vs. National Council for Teacher Education and Others (Writ Petition (C) No. 764/2019) relying upon the above order, also extended the cut off date for grant of recognition and affiliation upto 30.06.2019. Perusal of order passed in Gomi Devi Women Teachers Training College (supra) indicates that the Supreme Court, taking note of the fact that the session has not yet commenced and in case of all institutions, the counselling which commenced in June was to continue till July/August, extended the cut off date i.e. 03.03.2019 fixed in Maa Vaishno Devi Mahila Mahavidyalaya (supra) by two weeks with direction to NCTE to decide the request for recognition for the year 2019-20 within one week. It was further directed that the decision with regard to recognition for the year 2019-20 was to be taken by NCTE taking into account relevant factors.
(3.) As per the calendar/schedule fixed by this Court vide order dated 02.09.2016 and finalised vide order dated 09.09.2016. According thereto, the State Government is required to give its recommendations on the basis of its policy on applications sent by the NRC-NCTE without carrying out any inspection for verification of infrastructure/qualification of teachers latest by 30th September. The appointment of Nodal Agency / Coordinating agency (University) for entrance examination by the State Government has to be done by 15 th December. Applications for renewal were to be submitted by the existing institutions without late fees by 31st December and with late fee by 15 th January. NCTE was then mandated to grant recognition to new colleges as per Regulation 7 and 8 on the basis of recommendation and policy of the State Government by 3 rd March. It is in that sequence that the institutions were required to submit applications to the University for new affiliation by 10 th March. Thereafter, the State Government was required to issue NOC/list of colleges (with seats) for affiliating universities and coordinating agencies for admission by 30th March. The admission agency/affiliating university was then required to prescribe schedule or academic calendar in respect of each programme, at least three months in advance, of the commencement of each academic sessions which should happen latest by 1 st May. The affiliating University was to take a decision on application for affiliation and issuance of affiliation letter to eligible institutions upto 10th May. Thereafter, the affiliating university was required to convey list of affiliated colleges with number of seats for each course to admission agency and NRC-NCTE by 15 th May. Entrance test for B.Ed. Programmes was required to be conducted by 15 th May and declaration of result thereof was to be made by 25 th May. It can be noticed from the aforenoted schedule/calendar that the State Government has been given sufficient time to deal with the present matter. At Serial No. 9 of the calendar/schedule, the institutions have been required to submit applications for new affiliation to the University by 10th March. Serial No.10 provides for submission of recognition letters received by the institutions to State Government by 10th March. Vide Serial No. 11, State Government is required to issue NOC/list of colleges with seats for affiliating universities and coordinating agency by 30th March. Aforediscussed calendar/schedule was finalised after taking into consideration the suggestions and providing opportunity of hearing to all the stakeholders namely; State Government; NCTE and the University of Rajasthan. In spite of that, the State Government, in respect of previous year, filed an application on which his Court vide order dated 03.08.2018 extended the last date of admission upto 16.08.2018 but thereafter rejected further application filed by the original writ- petitioner Smt. Jyanki Devi Teacher Training College for further extending the date vide order dated 12.09.2018 passed in D.B. Civil Misc. Application No. 357/2018. ;