Dhaya College plea thrown out
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court disposed off the petition of Dhaya College of Engineering, seeking temporary affiliation, with directions to Anna University of Technology (AUT), Madurai, to pass appropriate orders on the affiliation before July 7.
The AUT, which conducted an inspection of the college on June 26, was yet to submit its report to be considered for the grant of affiliation. A division bench, comprising Justices R Banumathi and B Rajendran, in its order observed that the college’s claim for temporary affiliation was ‘premature’ and could not be considered at this point of time.
“The AUT has now constituted a committee which inspected the college on June 26 and the university is awaiting the report of the committee. As and when the committee submits the report the university will pass orders in accordance with the law”, the judges said.
“Therefore, at this point of time the college rushing the to court with a writ petition seeking provisional approval for the academic year 2012-13 is premature and there is no need for such a writ petition at all”, they added.
The High Court bench had earlier directed the AUT to constitute a committee and conduct inspection before May 30 this year. On May 31, the AUT sent a communication to the college stating that there were no faculty members available because of the vacation and the inspection would be conducted on June 26.
Meanwhile, the AUT also filed an application seeking extension of time at the High Court on June 4, after the court’s summer vacation. Under these circumstances, the college filed a writ petition in the court seeking provisional affiliation, and a single judge, who heard the case dismissed the petition. Subsequently, the college filed an appeal before the division bench.
On June 27, the Additional Advocate General told the court that the AUT would pass orders based on the report of the committee that conducted the inspection, in accordance with law.
Senior counsel P Wilson contended that the counselling was to commence from July 14 and without the affiliation the college could not participate or advertise for admitting students. Therefore the college should be granted temporary affiliation, he said.
The judges taking note of the developments, which include the inspection noted that the question of granting temporary affiliation at this point of time does not arise.
“Since the inspection is already over on June 26, the University will get the report from the committee before July 3 and pass orders in accordance with law as per the earlier directions of this court before July 7, as it is pointed that the counselling is scheduled to commence from the second week of July 2012”, the judges said while disposing the writ petition.