The apex court rejected the plea of the institutes that the career of hundreds of students trained by these unrecognised institutes would be in jeopardy if the National Council for Technical Education (NCTE) was not asked to grant them recognition.
Observing that teachers from unrecognised institutions will not be able to impart value-based education and merely train students to succeed in life by manipulations, the Supreme Court has dismissed a bunch of pleas filed by various such institutes seeking recognition.
A bench of Justice GS Singhvi and Justice KS Radhakrishnan said granting recognition to undeserving institutions would be detrimental to national interest and noted that appellants did not approach the court "with clean hands and succeeded in polluting the stream of justice by making patently false statement" on their status.
The apex court rejected the plea of the institutes that the career of hundreds of students trained by these unrecognised institutes would be in jeopardy if the National Council for Technical Education (NCTE) was not asked to grant them recognition.
"There is no valid ground much less justification to confer legitimacy upon the admission made by the appellants in a clandestine manner. Any such order by the court will be detrimental to the national interest. The students who may have taken admission and completed the course from an institution, which had not been granted recognition, will not be able to impart value based education to the future generation of the country," Justice Singhvi said in the judgement.
"Rather, they may train young minds as to how one can succeed in life by manipulations. Therefore, we do not consider it proper to issue direction for regularising the admissions made by the appellants on the strength of the interim orders passed by this court," it said.
Dismissing the appeal of Maharashtra based-Abhyudya Sanstha and six other teachers training institutes, the bench imposed a fine of Rs two lakh each on them for filing misleading claims before the apex court.
The institutes had come to the apex court after the Bombay high court upheld the Western Regional Committee, NCTE's decision not to grant recognition to the institutes in the back-drop of the recommendations made by the Maharashtra Government that there was no requirement of trained teachers in the state.
The appellant institutions had sought recognition in 2006 and 2007 for starting D.Ed courses.
The aggrieved institutes claimed that infrastructure has been created by investing huge amount and cancellation of recognition will cause irreparable loss to them.
The high court dismissed their plea following which they approached the apex court.
In the apex court, the institutions claimed that they were recognised institutions and the High Court had erroneously quashed recognition of 290 other institutions.
They claimed that the high court's orders would adversely affect their right to continue the D.Ed. courses.
"Each of the appellants consciously made a statement that it had been granted recognition by the NCTE.
"Those managing the affairs of the appellants do not belong to the category of innocent, illiterate/uneducated persons, who are not conversant with the relevant statutory provisions and the court process.
"The minimum, which can be said about the appellants is that they have not approached the court with clean hands and succeeded in polluting the stream of justice by making patently false statement. Therefore, they are not entitled to relief under Article 136 of the Constitution," the apex court said.
The bench said although, in the absence of cogent material, it was not possible to record a finding that the students were party to the patently wrong and misleading statement made by the institutions, the court cannot overlook the fact that none of the institutes has been granted recognition by the NCTE.
"The appellants could not have admitted any student. However, with a view to make business and earn profit in the name of education, the appellants successfully manipulated the judicial process for allocation of the students.
"In the result, the appeals are dismissed. Each of the appellants is saddled with costs of Rs 2 lakh, which shall be deposited with the Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority within a period of three months.
"If the needful is not done, the Secretary, Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority shall be entitled to recover the amount of cost as arrears of land revenue," the bench said.
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