The Secretary, The Academy Of Engineers (India) And ANR. v. State Of West Bengal And ORS.

10.09.2024 WPA 21408 of 2024 The Secretary, The Academy of Engineers (India) & anr. -vs- The State of West Bengal & ors.

Mr. Jaydip Kar, Sr. Adv Mr. Pijush Biswas Mr. Pushpashis Gupta Mr. Abhisek Baran Das ...for the petitioners Ms. Nandini Mitra ...for the respondent nos. 6 & 7 Ms. Sipra Majumdar Ms. Prativa Ghatak ...for the State Dr. Debu Chowdhury ...for the AICTE Learned senior counsel representing the petitioners ssi Ct. 17 submits as follows. The petitioners used to have a course of Electrical Engineering which was approved by the AICTE and was run under the respondent University. The petitioners decided to alter the course to Electrical and Computer Engineering. They obtained necessary affiliation from the AICTE for the said course. In spite of that, the University kept on delaying the issue of giving an approval for the same. This prompted the petitioners to finally revert back to the earlier course. The change of course was intimated to the University on 18.05.2024. The approval of the AICTE came in the form of a Corrigendum. In effect, there is nothing new for the University to look into. It was the old course that was given an approval to by the AICTE and the University, which

was to be restarted. Yet, the University sat over this and allowed the time schedule set by the AICTE for admissions and the like to be rendered redundant. The petitioners are not at all responsible for this. The respondent University should immediately grant necessary approval for the course so that the 60 seats for the course would not go waste for this year.

Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the AICTE submits that they have issued necessary corrigendum in this regard. They do not have any objection if the University now grants affiliation for the said course to the petitioners and the petitioners are allowed to admit students for the said course.

Learned counsel for the University denies the allegations made in the writ petition and submits as follows. The petitioners have been changing stands at different points. In any event, after due deliberations, the University has decided to grant approval, but they are concerned about the breach of the time schedule recommended by the AICTE for taking affiliation and the like. It is also clarified that for one of the new subjects that the petitioners were earlier seeking to teach in their course, no objection was not granted by the University.

It appears that the petitioners have decided to renew their old course with subjects that have already been approved by the concerned University and the AICTE. The AICTE too does not have any objection if the

University grants approval to the petitioners for running the said course again despite the academic calendar set by them.

In view of the above discussions, let the University grant affiliation for the said course to the petitioners being Electrical Engineering by 12.09.2024. The seats should be included for the de-centralized counseling. The petitioners shall thereafter be at liberty to take necessary steps for getting students admitted for the course.

With these observations, the writ petition is disposed of.

Urgent Photostat certified copy of this order be supplied to the parties, if applied for, as early as possible. (Jay Sengupta, J.)