The Supreme Court has pulled up the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) for repeatedly seeking extensions of the regulatory approval and admission schedule for pharmacy institutions, observing that regulatory authorities themselves were responsible for the decline in educational standards by failing to adhere to court-prescribed timelines.
The partial working days Bench of Justice Manmohan and Justice K. Vinod Chandran on Friday expressed strong displeasure over the recurring deviations from the admission calendar laid down by the Supreme Court in the 2012 judgment in Parshavanath Charitable Trust v. All India Council for Technical Education. The Court questioned the reasons behind the repeated delays and observed that the regulator had continued to seek extensions despite the schedule remaining in force for nearly 14 years.
During the hearing, the Bench orally remarked that the manner in which the PCI was administering the approval process was improper and suggested that the regulator appeared to be acting in concert with private colleges. If governments and statutory regulatory bodies themselves failed to comply with prescribed timelines, private educational institutions could not be expected to maintain discipline, it observed, adding that the deterioration in educational standards was primarily attributable to regulatory failures.
The Court noted that the uniform academic calendar governing approvals, affiliations and admissions had been laid down in the 2012 judgment to ensure timely commencement of academic sessions and to prevent delayed admissions from adversely affecting professional education. Despite this, the PCI had approached the Court almost every year seeking extensions.
The Bench pointed out that even after being granted an extension during the previous academic session, the PCI had once again filed a miscellaneous application seeking extension of the approval schedule for pharmacy institutions.
The counsel appearing for the PCI submitted that the delay had occurred due to administrative reasons, including the extension granted for submission of the Standard Inspection Format (SIF) applications until February 28, 2026. The Court, however, rejected the explanation, observing that the regulator had been aware of the prescribed schedule since 2012 and ought to have developed an administrative mechanism to ensure compliance.
The Bench questioned why the Court should continue granting indulgence when the statutory timelines had been known for over a decade. It also rejected the PCI’s reliance on disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, observing that the pandemic could not be cited as justification for continued delays several years after normal functioning had resumed.
The Supreme Court, however, agreed to extend the approval and admission schedule for the present academic year as a one-time measure, keeping in view the interests of the students and educational institutions. The Bench made it clear that the extension was being granted only in exceptional circumstances and should not be treated as a precedent.
The PCI was directed to file an affidavit within three days undertaking that it would strictly comply with the court-prescribed timelines from the next academic year onwards. The matter has been listed for further hearing next week.
The miscellaneous application before the Court sought extension of the timelines governing regulatory approvals, affiliation, counselling and admissions fixed in the 2012 Parshavanath Charitable Trust judgment. In 2012, the Apex Court had prescribed a uniform academic calendar for technical and professional educational institutions across the country to ensure timely admissions and maintain academic discipline.
While considering the present application, the Bench observed that repeated departures from the judicially mandated schedule undermined the integrity of the academic calendar and shifted the consequences of regulatory inefficiency onto students and educational institutions.
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