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Supreme Court to study AICTE notification

Legal Correspondent

Madras High Court had dismissed petitioner’s plea against it

Notice issued to AICTE seeking its response
Prohibits use of word ‘Indian’/National in name of technical educational institution

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has decided to examine the validity of a notification issued by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) that prohibits the use of the word ‘Indian’/National in part of the name of a technical educational institution.

A Bench of Justices Altamas Kabir and J.M. Panchal, after hearing senior counsel Arun Jaitley and counsel G. Balaji, stayed a Madras High Court judgment upholding the notification and issued notice to the AICTE seeking its response.

The petitioner, Selvam Educational and Charitable Trust, started an engineering college in the name of Indian Engineering College (IEE) in Tamil Nadu in 1984. Later, the State government accorded minority status to the college in 1996 and till November 2, 2002, the college retained its name.

On November 2, 2002, the AICTE issued a notification that said: “The use of the word Indian and/or National and/or All India and/or All India Council and/or Commission in any part of the name of a technical institution and/or any name whose abbreviated form leads to IIM/IIT/IISC/IIIT/AICUTE/UGC shall not be permitted.”

Any institution functioning with the names using these words should change its name.

The petitioner changed the name of the institution as ‘The Rajaas Engineering College’ under protest but sought permission to retain the old name. The AICTE rejected this request on December 23, 2005 and the Madras High Court dismissed the petitioner’s plea against the notification. The present SLP is directed against this judgment dated October 11, 2007.

The petitioner said that to arbitrarily call upon the Trust to change the name of the institution after 18 years was “most unfair” and “unreasonable” as tremendous goodwill was created by using the name IEE.

“Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act does not prohibit use of Indian and hence it would be highly improper and unreasonable on the part of the AICTE in not allowing the petitioner to retain its old name IEE.”

The petitioner said the SLP raised important questions of law, viz., whether the notification was contrary to the provisions of the ENPIU Act; whether the action of the AICTE was arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution and whether the notification would be applicable prospectively or retrospectively.

The SLP sought quashing of the impugned judgment and an interim stay of its operation.

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