The Lucknow bench of the High Court has rejected the state government’s order to cancel the No Objection Certificate (NOC) given to 301 pharmacy colleges. The court has said in its decision that undoubtedly it is necessary to control the pharmacy colleges which are growing like mushrooms, but this can be done in a legal manner, and not the way the state government has done in this case.
This decision was passed by a single bench of Justice Om Prakash Shukla while simultaneously hearing the petitions of 301 pharmacy colleges and the trusts running them, including the Committee of Management Jai Prakash Charitable Trust. On behalf of the petitioners, it was said that the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) had invited applications between July 3, 2022 and July 15, 2022 for setting up new institutions for BPharm and DPharm courses. No objection certificate issued by the government was necessary for the application.
The Secretary, Board of Technical Education issued an order on July 14, 2022, saying that due to time constraints, the institutions willing to apply for the said application can obtain NOC by filing a self-declarative affidavit. After filing the affidavit, NOC was issued to the petitioner institutions. However, on March 24 and April 3, 2023, orders were given to all the District Magistrates from the Chief Minister’s Office to form a committee of Tehsildar, Government Inter College Principal and an Assistant Engineer in their respective districts which will investigate the facts of the said declaratory affidavit filed by the institutions. . During investigation, contradictions were found in the affidavits of the petitioner institutions. On this basis, on May 18, 2023, the Secretary, Board of Technical Education issued a letter regarding cancellation of NOC issued to the petitioners. The court has said in the decision that before canceling the NOC of the petitioner institutions, they were neither given a chance to be heard nor were any show cause notices issued. The court rejected the order of May 18, 2023 on this basis. However, the court has also given the government the freedom to take legal action.