The High Court dismissed an appeal challenging orders cancelling an appellant's B.Ed. admission. The court held that subsequent completion of graduation during the course did not cure the initial ineligibility and no equitable relief was available.
Appeal dismissed; orders cancelling admission upheld.
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RSA No.2870 of 2009
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH.
RSA No.2870 of 2009
Date of Decision: 5.10.2009
Sonia Jain
....Appellant
Vs.
Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra and others
....Respondents
CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE RAJIVE BHALLA
Present : Mr. Vivek Sharma, Advocate for the appellant. Mr. S.C. Sibal, Sr. Advocate with Mr. V.S. Rana, Advocate for the respondents.
RAJIVE BHALLA, J (Oral)
The appellant challenges the judgements and decrees dated 30.5.2008 and 1.5.2009, passed by the Civil Judge (Junior Division), Kurukshetra and the Additional District Judge, Kurukshetra, dismissing her suit and her appeal.
The appellant filed a suit for declaration that the orders dated 22.2.2006 and 24.2.2006 cancelling her admission be declared null and void. The appellant pleaded that she sat for an entrance examination for the B.Ed course conducted by the M.D. University, Rohtak. She was called for counselling, her documents were appraised by the Admission Committee and she was granted admission to B.Ed. College of Doon Valley at Karnal. However, on 17.11.2005, she received a letter from the University
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cancelling her admission as on the date of admission she was not a graduate and,therefore, ineligible. The appellant replied that as she had completed her graduation during the B.Ed. Course and had been allowed to sit for the B.Ed. Examination, her admission should not be cancelled. However, vide orders dated 22.2.2006 and 24.2.2006 respectively, her admission was finally cancelled.
In response to the averments in the plaint, the respondents asserted that the University cancelled the appellant's admission, as she had not passed the B.A. Examination and was, therefore, ineligible for admission to the B.Ed. course. On the basis of the pleadings, the learned trial court framed the following issues :-
After considering the pleadings, the evidence adduced and arguments addressed, the trial court dismissed the suit by holding that as the appellant was ineligible for admission, the fact that she cleared her
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graduation, during the pendency of the B.Ed. course was irrelevant.
Aggrieved by the aforementioned judgement and decree, the appellant filed an appeal. Vide judgement and decree dated 1.5.2009, the District Judge, Kurukshetra, dismissed the appeal.
Counsel for the appellant submits that the appellant does not deny that on the date of her admission to B.Ed. course, she had not completed her graduation. However, during the B.Ed. course, she sat for and cleared the supplementary examination thereby completing her graduation. It is submitted that as the respondents allowed her admission, permitted her to undergo the course and allowed her to sit for the examination, this court should, in the exercise of its equitable jurisdiction, set aside the orders cancelling her admission.
Counsel for the respondents, however, submits that in matters of admission, it is eligibility and not equity that matters . The appellant was admittedly ineligible for admission to the B.Ed. course. An error on the part of the admission committee, the college or the university, would not confer any equitable rights upon the appellant to urge that her admission be regularised.
I have heard learned counsel for the parties, perused the impugned judgements and considered the questions of law framed by counsel for the appellant but express my inability to hold that the impugned judgements are in any manner, illegal or raise any substantial question of law. Admittedly, the appellant was ineligible for admission to the B.Ed. course. The fact that she subsequently cleared the qualifying examination during the B.Ed. course and thus became eligible would not date back to the date of admission. The doctrine of estoppel does not apply to a case of
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an admitted ineligibility, particularly when the admission committee, the college and the university had no power to admit the appellant to the B.Ed. course. It is true that she may not have committed a fraud or mislead the respondents but this alone would not entitle the appellant to the exercise of any discretion, based upon equity or to pray that her ineligibility be condoned.
In this view of the matter, as the order cancelling the admission was rightly passed by the respondents, the appeal fails and is dismissed.
5.10.2009 (RAJIVE BHALLA) GS JUDGE
2 issues framed by the court
Whether an appellant who completed graduation during the B.Ed. course can challenge the cancellation of her admission due to initial ineligibility.
Whether the doctrine of estoppel or equity applies to regularize admission where the student was ineligible at the time of admission.
Sonia Jain
Kurukshetra University
RAJIVE BHALLA
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
