Holding that minority educational institution need not advertise vacancies for non-teaching staff and can fill up the vacancies on their own, the Madras High Court has upheld the appointments made by one such institution in Coimbatore and directed the educational authorities to grant the approval and other requirements.
As rightly contended by senior counsel Isaac Mohan Lal for the petitioner, Rule 11(4)(ii), the Tamil Nadu Private Colleges (Regulation) Act, 1976, and Rules, was in relation to the appointment of teaching staff by the college committee. But as far as the Nirmala College for Women, an autonomous one in Coimbatore, the committee is not required to be constituted under Section 11 of the Act, unlike in respect of the institutions not being Minority institutions. In the absence of such regulation, this court is unable to countenance the action of the educational authorities concerned, in refusing to grant approval of the appointments of the seven non-teaching staff and one lab assistant in the college. The refusal to grant approval for the subject appointments, therefore, cannot stand the test of judicial scrutiny and the same is liable to be interfered with, Justice V Parthiban said.
The judge was allowing two writ petitions seeking to quash the orders of the Joint Director of Education in Coimbatore, dated August 20, 2018, refusing approval for seven non-teaching staff and one lab assistant, and direct him to disburse the staff grant towards their salary and allowances, with effect from the respective dates of their recruitment. The judge added that he is unable to appreciate as to how, despite the settled legal principle in respect of the minority institutions, the educational authorities can insist upon certain requirements as provided for, in the 1976 Act and Rules.
When the minority institution enjoys complete protection under Article 30 of the Constitution, as stated by Mohan Lal, such protection cannot be trifled with, by the educational authorities by insisting on the application of certain requirements provided under the Act and Rules, provisions of which cannot be applied to the minority institutions. In fact, in respect of the appointment of non-teaching staff, the requirement of advertisement was not envisaged in the Rules and such requirement cannot be supplemented by any executive action of the authorities. Unless the Rules are supplanted providing for such requirement, the educational authorities cannot insist on the same, which is not found specifically in the rules. Even otherwise, such requirement, even if introduced in the Rules, cannot be pressed into service in respect of minority institutions, the judge added.
