Thapar polytechnic college fails to get relief on NOC

Saurabh Malik

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 29

Acting on a petition filed by Patiala-based Thapar Polytechnic College against the rejection of its plea for issuance of no-objection certificate for affiliation with Thapar University, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today declined to give any relief.

Justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia also made it clear that the conditional NOC would not be enforced against the petitioner-institute for the current year in view of the fact that the relief of getting degrees awarded from respondent-varsity has been declined for the present year.” It would be open to the petitioner to apply for NOC afresh with the state government, he said.

Senior advocate for Punjab State Board of Technical Education Chetan Mittal submitted that the NOC had been wrongly issued. He added the board, vide order dated May 23, had withdrawn the earlier NOC on the ground that it was issued without the approval of the competent authority and was, thus, invalid.

The counsel appearing for the petitioner had submitted that the earlier NOC dated February 9, 2015 issued by the state a change of affiliation had been permitted. As such, it would not be given grant-in-aid for the present year. The college would be prejudiced as it would lose the benefit, while continuing to be affiliated with the board.

Taking a note of the assertion, Justice Sandhawalia asserted the submission at the current stage could not be accepted. “The career of students cannot be played with”.

Justice Sandhawalia added that the Standing Appellate Committee of the recognizing body, AICTE, also came to the conclusion that the petitioner-institute was earlier affiliated to the board and would continue to be affiliated till the final decision of the present writ petition.