High Court to minority B.Ed College: ‘Cannot play with academic life of students’

Kolkata: Refusing to grant any relief to a minority B.Ed College which “willfully violated” University rules, the Calcutta High Court observed that they played with the academic life of the students which they cannot do.

The bench of Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Prasenjit Biswas was moved by Sundarbans Minority B.ED College challenging a single bench judgement which was not to their satisfaction.

In this case, the affiliation of the college was not renewed by the University for the session 2023-24 due to certain

deficiencies. The University had alleged that despite warnings, the college failed to cure such shortcomings.

The court discerned from the materials on record that the college knew that the University raised some queries despite that the college authority admitted the students for the academic session 2023-24 and thereafter session was started. Further, by making offline admissions, the college violated a clear mandate of the University that admissions for the academic session should always be made online mode, the court observed.

The court said: “We are conscious about the academic interest of the students but undoubtedly there is a fault on the part of the appellant college and virtually they played with the academic life of the students which they cannot do”.

“It is apparent from the materials on record that the appellant college knew very well that the respondent university raised some queries in respect of deficiencies and discrepancies of the said college despite knowing the said mandate of the university, the appellant college went on to admit the students for the academic session 2023-24,” the court observed.

The division bench refused to interfere with the single bench order which had asked the college authority to cure all the deficiencies and to apply for affiliation/ renewal of affiliation for the next terms onward.