Supreme Court allows withdrawal of PIL against AICTE; Court stays away from Govt Policy Decisions

NEW DELHI, MARCH 14: The engineering colleges teachers have withdrawn their Writ Application from the Supreme Court of India filed against the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in which they challenged the recent notification regarding the change in faculty students ratio.

On March 1, The Private Educational Institutions Employees Association (PEIEA) of Tamil Nadu, (along with other self-financing college teachers’ associations of Telangana) have filed a PIL for stay and withdrawal of AICTE’s new faculty-student ratio of 1:20.

The two Judges SC Bench did not dismiss and allowed the PIL to be withdrawn, the petitioners can approach AICTE again and refile a fresh writ if AICTE fails to correct.

The Supreme Court Bench observed, “It is purely an academic matter. Learned counsel has rightly prayed for withdrawal of the writ petition with liberty to approach respondents. Statement is placed on record. The writ petition is dismissed as withdrawn.”

The Apex Court believed that the AICTE (under the purview of MHRD) is the educational policymaker of the government, and court stays away from the opinion of AICTE (or stays away from policy decisions of the government).

As per the Petitioners, PIL was withdrawn as the dismissal of a case by the court render it de-meritorious and unfit for further hearing. Dismiss of a case will also render it unfit to be refilled or reheard, and an appeal becomes difficult. “Withdrawing by the petitioners do not allow any chance for the court to dismiss the writ, and hence petitioners have one more opportunity to approach AICTE and come back to the court if AICTE does not withdraw the ratio. While coming back they may have strong evidence proving that the AICTE is at flaw.