Future Of Students Cannot Be Impacted: Rajasthan High Court Directs RUHS To Declare Exam Results Despite Affiliation Dispute Of Pharmacy College

Rajasthan High Court has granted relief to 60 students who had taken admission in Shri Sawai College of Pharmacy (“College”) and had spent two years in learning a course, however declaration of their results was put on hold by the examining authority i.e. Rajasthan University of Health Sciences (“University”) since the approval of the College by the Pharmacy Council of India (“Council”) was under dispute.

The bench of Justice Dinesh Mehta observed that even though granting of admission to these students by the College was irregular, however, dismissing the petition would impact the future of these 60 students who had bona-fidely taken admission in the College and had spent two years assuming that the College was entitled to admit them.

It was the case of the College that it has received approval from the Council to commence first year of the pharma course for 2019-20 after which the College applied for affiliation with the University to get the final approval of the Council. However, when the Council conducted inspection in 2021, it issued a show cause notice to the College on the grounds that the College did not submit the consent of affiliation by the University and that it was short on staff.

The College submitted reply to the show cause notice stating that the defects existed since no admissions were given in 2019-20, however, all defects were cured. Despite that, when the counseling for the year 2020-21 started, the College was not allowed to take part in the same which led to filing of the writ petition.

An interim order was passed in the petition by a coordinate bench of the Court that allowed the College to take part in the counselling. However, till this order came, the counselling was over and the College ended up admitting students for the year 2020-21 but the results of these students was put on hold by the University. Hence, the College filed an application before the Court seeking a direction to the University (examining authority) to declare the results of the admitted students.

Opposing these submissions, the counsel for the University argued that the interim order only allowed College's participation in the counseling and not admitting students. It was argued that since the College did not have any affiliation/approval in light of the pending petition, it could not have given admission to students.

After hearing these contentions, the Court highlighted that the initial approval given by the Council was not revoked or withdrawn but only a show cause notice was issued furtherance to which the discrepancies were cured by the College. However, the approval given by the Council was for 2019-20 but the students were admitted by the College for the year 2020-21.

The Court held that irrespective of the fact that the admissions granted by the College were irregular, in the interest of justice, to save the future of 60 students who bona-fidely took admission, the petition needs to be allowed.

“Having regard to the fact that 60 students bonafidely got admission, paid fees and spent their two years, under the impression that the petitioner is entitled to admit the students, this Court feels that if this writ petition is dismissed, it would serve no cause. In any case, dismissal of writ petition would impact future of these 60 students for none of their fault… in the interest of justice, this Court deems it expedient to direct the respondent-University to declare the result of the students who have been given admission and taught by the petitioner-College.”

Accordingly, the Court directed the University to declare results of the 60 student and as a penalty for granting irregular admissions, the College was directed to pay Rs. 15 lakhs to the University which shall be used by the latter for student library.

Title: Shri Sawai College of Pharmacy & Ors. v State of Rajasthan & Ors.

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Raj) 207

Click Here To Read/Download Order