Supreme Court Upholds NCTE’s Power to Demand Performance Appraisal Reports from Teacher Training Institutes
Case Title: THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR TEACHERS EDUCATION VERSUS ASSOCIATION OF NCTE APPROVED COLLEGES TRUST AND ORS.
Case No.: SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (C) NO. 11756/2023
Coram: Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe
Court Observation
“…there is ample empowerment of the Council as well as the Executive Committee to call for annual Performance Appraisal Report from institutions imparting teacher education.”
“We fail to understand as to how a regulatory measure of a statutory body, empowered to achieve planned and coordinated development of teacher education system in the country could be restrained from calling upon the TEIs to file Performance Appraisal Report. We are of the opinion that even without a specific empowerment under the statute, such a regulatory measure can always be incidental and ancillary to the duties and functions of a regulator. As there is a performance audit of NCTE itself by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), it is but natural and incidental that NCTE would require the stakeholders, over which it exercises the regulatory jurisdiction, to provide the necessary Performance Appraisal Report.”
“the duties to be performed by the Council and the bodies that are constituted along with it, such as the Executive Committee and the Regional Committees, are perhaps the highest of all the duty bearers.”
“We are of the opinion that there is ample empowerment of the Council as well as the Executive Committee to call for annual Performance Appraisal Report from institutions imparting teacher education. To start with, such a power is clearly traceable to Section 12(k) of the Act, where under the Council could “evolve suitable performance appraisal system, norms and mechanisms for enforcing accountability on recognised institutions” and in exercise of such a function, the Council deliberated on the issue and authorised Executive Committee to implement it through a formal proforma. Thereafter, it is the duty of the Executive Committee to carry forward the mandate of the Council. This is exactly what the Member Secretary did, when he issued the Public Notice dated 22.09.2019 calling upon the institutions running NCTE recognised courses to file Performance Appraisal Report.”
“Apart from the duty to ensure that the executive authority/statutory bodies do not exercise powers that are not vested in them, Constitutional courts also have a positive duty to ensure that Authorities, more particularly, the regulators do exercise their powers effectively, efficiently and in an accountable manner. In this context, Courts cannot adopt a technical or a pedantic view of the action taken by the regulators.”
