R.R.Patil College Of Homeopathy And Hospital And R.C. Sangli Thr. Principal And ANR v. Union Of India Ministry Of Ayurveda Thr. Secretary And ORS
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
CIRCUIT BENCH AT KOLHAPUR CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO. 487 OF 2026 1.
Hon. R.R. Patil College of Homeopathy And Hospital And R.C. Sangli Through its Principal, Having Office at Pune By Pass Highway, Sangli - 416 416 2.
Tatyasaheb Ghatage Charitable Trust, through its Chairman Having Office at Pune By Pass Highway, Sangli - 416 416 ... Petitioners
Versus
1.
Union of India Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH, Through its Secretary, Having office at AYUSH Bhavan, 'B' Block, GOP Complex, INA, New Delhi - 110 023 2.
The State of Maharashtra Through Ministry of Medical Education and Drugs Dept, Maharashtra Through its Secretary Having office at Mantralaya, Mumbai - 400 032 The Central Council of Homeopathy, through its Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Jawaharlal Nehru Bhartiya Chikitsa Avum Homeopathy, Anusandan Bhavan No. 61-65, Institutional Area, Opp.: "D" Block, Janakpuri, New Delhi-110058.
Digitally signed by SAJAKALI LIYAKAT JAMADAR Date:
2026.02.12 20:12:22 +0530 SAJAKALI LIYAKAT JAMADAR
4.
The Commissioner and Competent Authority, State Common Entrance Test Cell having Office at 8th Floor, New Excelsior Building, A.K. Nayak Marg, Fort, Mumbai 01.
5.
National Commission for Homoeopathy Through it's Secretary Jawaharlal Nehru Bhartiya Chikitsa Avum Homoeopathy Anusandhan Bhawan No. 61-65, Institutional Area, Opposite 'D' Block, Janakpuri, New Delhi - 110058.
...Respondents
Mr. Kuldeep U. Nikam a/w Mr. Pratik Patil, Mr. Unmesh Jamdar, Mr. Rushikesh Desai, Advocate for Petitioners.
Mr. Vijay Killedar, Advocate for Respondent No.1. Smt. S. N. Deshmukh, AGP for the Respondent-State. Ms. Poornima Avasti for Respondent No.5 - NCH.
CORAM
:
NITIN B. SURYAWANSHI, AND AJIT B. KADETHANKAR, JJ.
DATE :
12th FEBRUARY, 2026 ORAL JUDGMENT : (Per : NITIN B. SURYAWANSHI, J.) 1.
This petition challenges the order passed by Respondent No.1. - Through the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH). By the impugned order dated 19.01.2021, permission is denied to Petitioner No.1- College for taking admission to First Year Degree Course of BHMS with an intake capacity of 50 undergraduate seats for the academic year 2020-2021.
2.
This Court (Coram : S.C. GUPTE & SURENDRA P. TAVADE, JJ.) at the time of admission hearing at principal seat has considered the material placed before it and has passed following order on 27.01.2021 :
"2.
The averments in the petition and the material placed therewith make out a prima facie case, and a very strong prima facie case at that, that the Petitioner College has complied with all the original deficiencies conveyed to it by the Ministry. The very idea of conveying these deficiencies was to seek the Petitioners' explanation or compliance. It does appear from the chart, which the Ministry has produced in the impugned order, that after the deficiencies were conveyed, various steps were taken towards compliance of these deficiencies by the Petitioners. Based on the Petitioners' submissions after such compliance, there are even clear observations of the hearing committee that the Petitioners' College has indeed remedied the deficiencies conveyed to it.
Despite the positive observations of the hearing committee, such observations being uniformly positive in respect of each of the 12 deficiencies originally conveyed to the Petitioners, the Ministry has taken an exactly contrary stand and denied permission to admit students to Petitioner No.1. If one goes by the remarks of the Ministry, there appear to be two categories of remarks. Firstly, it is claimed that during the original submission of Part-I to the Ministry, the details, which form part of the Petitioners' submission before the hearing committee, were not reflected. Secondly, it is claimed that the documents submitted by the Petitioners do not appear to be genuine.
As for the first category of observations, the very idea of conveying deficiencies and allowing the Petitioners to remedy or comply with them and produce evidence before the hearing committee, is to enable the Petitioners to improve upon their original submission before the Ministry. After allowing the Petitioners to go through this process, it is impermissible to the Ministry to deny permission to them on the ground that the submission made before the hearing committee did not form part of the original submission made to the Ministry.
basis of such inspection, it has come to a finding about genuineness or otherwise of the documents produced before the hearing committee. Even at the hearing of this petition, what we are told is that based on the material, the Ministry has formed an impression that the material did not appear to be genuine. It is prima facie impermissible to the Ministry to come to any such conclusion on the basis of its mere impression; it must come to a positive finding based on concrete material and only when it reaches such finding, can it deny permission on the basis of such finding.
4. In the premises, there will be Rule and interim relief in terms of prayer clauses (c) and (d), which are quoted below :- "(c) Pending the hearing and final disposal of the present petition, the impugned order/letters of denial dated 19/01/2021 issued by Respondent No.1 be stayed and by passing a suitable interim order grant permission to the Petitioner College for admission of 50 students in the first year of under graduate course of Homeopathic (BHMS-UG) for Academic Sessions 2020-2021 and further allow them to prosecute their studies and complete their entire course and further allow to appear for the examination and declare their results periodically in the interest of justice, during the pendency of this petition;
(d) That during the pendency and final disposal of the present writ petition, the direction may be issued to Respondent No.4 herein, the State Common Entrance Test Cell to effectively include the Petitioner College in the admission process for the academic year 2020-2021." "
During the pendency of this Petition, the batch which was admitted in 2021-2022 academic year, is likely to pass out and presently the students are doing their internship. 4.
Subsequently, by order dated 11.07.2025 passed by Respondent No.5 the intake capacity of Petitioner No.1 is increased from 50 to 100. The copy of the same is placed on record, it is marked "X" for identification purposes.
5.
Taking into consideration the observations made in Paragraph-2 of the above quoted order dated 27.01.2021 and the fact that subsequently the intake capacity of the Petitioner-college is increased to 100, the Writ Petition deserves to be allowed. Resultantly, the Writ Petition is allowed by making the rule absolute in terms of the interim relief.
(AJIT B. KADETHANKAR, J.) (NITIN B. SURYAWANSHI, J.)