Srinagar: The J&K High Court on Thursday dismissed a petition by hundreds of candidates from private B Ed colleges seeking a direction to Kashmir University to confirm their admission for the session 2018-20.
Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey while dismissing the petitions observed “the petitioners have taken admission to two-year B. Ed Course in different colleges of the valley on their own, without following the due procedure prescribed in the statutes of the respondent university”.
He upheld a 2012 decision by a coordinate bench of the High Court on a similar matter which said “any admission made in violation of the university statute would not be binding on the university and that the university would be under no obligation to regularize/confirm such admission.”
The petitioners wanted the University to accept and entertain their registration returns (RRs) and register them along with the batch of 2018-20 for B Ed course.
They also requested to be allowed to appear in the examination of Batch 2018-20 along with other candidates.
The petitioners pleaded that they were unable to apply for the B Ed course notified by the university in 2018 for session 2018-20 because of the unprecedented lockdown in the aftermath of the ending of the special constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir.
The University of Kashmir rejected the claim saying the petitioners having come from different states of India and have paid huge amounts to get admission in different private colleges in J&K.
It said “the university alone invites applications for the course and then allots students to various colleges of the valley and the colleges have no authority to admit students of its own.”
It further said the university did not have any knowledge about the admission of the petitioners in any of the colleges or their pursuit of the course in the respective colleges.
The petitioners and concerned colleges have apparently, entered into some arrangement for their admission in next session and concerned colleges have, accordingly, agreed to facilitate their admission for the Session 2019-21, unmindful of the fact that in the meantime, the criteria for admission has undergone a change, the lawyer representing the university said.
He said “this development has rendered the petitioners ineligible for admission and in order to overcome this impediment, the petitioners, in connivance with the concerned colleges, who stand to lose in the process if admissions do not fructify, have come with a new story to claim that they have been admitted for the Session 2018-20”.
The court agreed with the respondent lawyer saying “no RR’s have been forwarded to the university within the fixed time-frame by the concerned colleges regarding the admission of the petitioners.
“In such circumstances, the action of the respondent university in denying the regularization/confirmation of the admission of the petitioners cannot be said to be illegal or contrary to the procedure governing the field,” it said.
The court said that once the petitioners did not follow the laid down procedure for seeking admission to the B.Ed course and sought admission from the colleges on their own, the university is not under obligation to regularize and confirm such admissions.
The educational institutions, after admitting the students in willful disregard of the university statute more often make an effort to get the irregularities condoned in the name of academic interest of the students admitted in violation of the varsity statutes, observed the court.
It said the erring educational institutions try to give the controversy the color and complexion of an emotional issue and argue that the students, though enrolled in violation of university statutes, should not be exposed to any penalty for the wrong committed by the institution.
