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TMI Blog2011 (2) TMI 1563X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... "the Act", for short) for establishing a new dental college with an intake of 100 students, commencing from the academic year 2007-2008. Thereafter, by Orders dated 18-8-2008 and 23-6-2009, the Central Government granted renewal of permission for the academic years 2008-2009 and 2009-2010. 3. For the academic year 2010-2011, the petitioner made an application for the fourth year renewal permission, to the Dental Council of India ("DCI", for short) on 24-2-2010 enclosing therewith a form containing the particulars of teaching staff, infrastructure, etc. as also a demand draft for rupees one lakh towards the inspection fees. In pursuance of it, the DCI Inspectors carried out an inspection on 26-4-2010 and submitted a joint inspection report to DCI. Based on the said report, DCI by communication dated 17-5-2010 informed the petitioner College about the deficiencies in faculty, equipments/instruments and library, with reference to the DCI norms, and called upon the College to rectify the deficiencies and furnish a compliance report within five days. 4. The petitioner College sent a compliance report dated 19-5-2010 to DCI informing them about the action taken to rectify the deficienc ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... after the time fixed for hearing. It, therefore, held that the mandatory requirement of reasonable opportunity of being heard, required under the proviso to Section 10-A(4) of the Act was not complied with. As a consequence, the High Court remitted the petitioner's application for renewal of permission for 2010-2011, for reconsideration by the Central Government, by giving a due hearing to the petitioner. The High Court also directed the three-member Committee constituted by the Central Government to hear the petitioner on 6-8-2010, consider the documents furnished by it and pass final orders. It also reserved liberty to DCI, if necessary, to make further inspection to verify the correctness of the compliance report submitted by the petitioner College and send a further report so as to reach the three-member Committee of the Central Government before 6-8-2010. 7. In pursuance of the said order, the three-member Committee gave a hearing to the petitioner College on 6-8-2010. Thereafter, the Committee recommended the renewal of permission for the fourth year of the BDS course for the academic year 2010-2011. Accepting the recommendation, the Central Government sent a communicati ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hat such a direction was issued on 29-7-2010, after the last date (15th July) for grant of permission had expired; that the Central Government gave a hearing as directed by the High Court and being satisfied that the petitioner had complied with the requirements, promptly took a decision reversing the earlier decision and granted the renewal of permission; and that as the Central Government felt that its order granting permission in August may violate the requirement in Mridul Dhar that the last date for issue of permission should be 15th July, the Central Government imposed the condition that its permission was subject to the Dental College obtaining an order from this Court, approving the grant of permission beyond 15th July. It was submitted by the Central Government in its counter-affidavit dated 10-12-2010 filed in this writ petition that as the Ministry did not want to violate the order of this Court in Mridul Dhar, by granting any permission after 15th July, it had "incorporated the condition in the letters of permission issued after 15-7-2010 but before 30-9-2010". It was submitted that the delay was not attributable either to the petitioner College or DCI or the Central Go ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ended to be exercised to grant "advance rulings of administrative approvals" to validate executive orders. Neither the Central Government, nor DCI, can shift the onus of decision-making to the courts, blurring and obliterating the line of separation between the executive and the judiciary. Any attempt by the executive authority to provide itself a protective cover against challenges or criticism to its action, by "passing the buck" to the judiciary in regard to final decisions, should be resisted and avoided. The orders of the Central Government granting or refusing permission are subject to judicial review at the instance of any affected party, and the same cannot be pre-empted by making the Supreme Court a party to the decision-making process of the executive. We are therefore of the view that it was not proper for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Dental Education Section), Government of India (for short "the Ministry") to stipulate a condition while granting renewal of permission for the BDS course, that the "order is subject to the condition that the institute obtains the orders of the Supreme Court to the effect that such permission would not violate the earlier orde ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ssions and renewal of permissions by the Central Government is 15th July. We may refer to the relevant provisions of the DCI Regulations. 16. Regulation 4 of the DCI Regulations relates to submission of proposals/schemes for establishing new dental colleges and it is extracted below: "4. Proposals or schemes for establishing a new dental college, or opening a new or higher course of study or training or increasing the admission capacity, in the dental college.-(1) The proposals or schemes for establishing a new dental college, or opening a new or higher course of study or training or increasing the admission capacity, in the dental college, as the case may be, shall be made or submitted to the Central Government for obtaining its permission under the Act in the Form 1, Form 2 and Form 3, respectively, annexed to these regulations. (2) The scheme or the proposal under sub-regulation (1) and, processing thereof shall be submitted within the time schedule as provided in the Schedule annexed to these regulations." (emphasis supplied) 17. The Schedule annexed to the Regulations, referred to in Regulation 4(2) prescribing the time schedule for grant of permissions, is extracte ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on under sub-regulation (1) to establish a new dental college will be granted for a period of one year and will be renewed on yearly basis subject to verification of the achievement of annual targets and revalidation, if necessary, of the performance bank guarantees. 11. Renewal of Permission.-(1) Admissions of the next batches shall not be made by the dental college unless the permission granted under Regulation 10 has been renewed by the Central Government. (2) The application for renewal of permission shall be submitted to the Council, with a copy to the Central Government, six months prior to the expiry of the current academic session. The recommendation of the Council in all cases of renewal shall be made by 15th June and the Central Government shall issue final orders regarding renewal of permission by 15th July of each year: Provided that the process of renewal of permission will not be applicable after the completion of phased expansion of the infrastructure facilities and teaching faculty as per norms laid down by the Council and the first batch of students take the final year examinations." (emphasis supplied) 19. Regulation 11(2) clearly lays down a time sch ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sought in the writ petition, we are of the view that the petitioner is entitled to a suitably moulded relief. As noticed above, the delay was beyond the control of DCI and the Central Government. The petitioner College was also not responsible for the delay in applying for renewal of permission. The last date for admissions had not yet expired. The order was passed on the direction of the High Court to reconsider the matter. There were several other similar cases pending before the Central Government. All those applications for renewal of permission, which were directed to be reconsidered by the High Court could be considered to be a special category of applications where the Central Government had modified the time schedule for grant of renewal of permissions under Note 2 to the Schedule to the DCI Regulations. By so deeming, the Order of the Central Government dated 17-8-2010 granting renewal of permissions in this case and other similar cases can be considered as having been validly made. The connected cases 22. In the connected cases, the Central Government has passed similar conditional orders granting renewal of permission to other petitioner dental colleges, in regard to e ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... training and other facilities to ensure proper functioning of the institution; whether the institution has provided or would provide within the time-limit specified in the scheme, adequate hospital facilities; whether faculty having recognised dental qualifications and personnel in the field of practice of dentistry will be available to impart proper training to the students; and whether other factors prescribed by the Regulations have been complied. On the other hand, for the purpose of grant of renewal of permission, DCI has to make recommendations by considering only whether the prescribed faculty and infrastructure are available. 25. The need for renewal of permission emanates from the fact that a newly established college is not required to have in place, full complement of the teaching faculty and complete infrastructure in the first year itself. This is because, during the first year, the college will be catering only to a limited number of first year students. During the second, third and fourth and fifth years, the student strength will increase. If the permitted intake is 100, usually there will be 100 students in the first year, 200 students in the second year, 300 stud ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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