The Supreme Court has affirmed the regulatory authority of the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) to require recognised Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs) to submit annual Performance Appraisal Reports (PAR), holding that such a requirement falls within the regulator’s statutory and incidental powers.
A Bench comprising Justices PS Narasimha and Alok Aradhe set aside the Delhi High Court’s 2023 judgment that had invalidated a 2019 NCTE public notice mandating TEIs to upload PARs. The case arose from the NCTE’s challenge to the High Court ruling in The National Council for Teacher Education v. Association of NCTE Approved College Trust and Others.
The dispute centred on whether the NCTE’s Executive Committee could independently introduce the PAR mechanism without obtaining a fresh approval from the Council’s General Body.
The Supreme Court, however, found that the Executive Committee had acted pursuant to an earlier decision of the General Body. At its 48th meeting, the General Body had resolved to replace the existing system of “Annual Renewal of Recognition” with a Performance Appraisal Report mechanism and had authorised the NCTE to operationalise the decision through a proforma of its own design.
The Bench consequently held that the Executive Committee was not acting beyond its remit when it issued the 2019 public notice. Rather, it was implementing a policy decision already taken by the competent body of the statutory regulator.
The Court further rejected the proposition that every regulatory measure adopted by a statutory authority must trace its validity to an express and specific statutory provision. It observed that powers necessary to discharge the functions entrusted to a regulator may, in appropriate circumstances, be exercised as incidental or ancillary powers.
The judgment thus recognises a broader regulatory latitude for specialised statutory bodies entrusted with maintaining institutional standards. The Court cautioned that an unduly technical interpretation of a regulator’s statutory mandate could impede the effective discharge of its responsibilities.
The NCTE had issued the public notice on September 22, 2019, making submission of PARs mandatory for TEIs and warning institutions of consequences for non-compliance. The Delhi High Court had subsequently interfered with the measure, accepting the contention that the Executive Committee lacked authority to evolve the appraisal framework without an independent decision of the General Body.
The apex court took a different view, stressing that the NCTE has been constituted to ensure the planned and coordinated development of teacher education across the country and to maintain appropriate norms and standards in the sector.
The Bench also placed the issue within the wider constitutional framework governing the right to education. It underscored the pivotal role played by teachers in shaping the intellectual and social development of children and consequently emphasised the obligation to maintain quality and accountability at the level of institutions responsible for teacher training.
In this context, the Court treated both TEIs and the NCTE as important “duty bearers” within the architecture of the right to education. The regulatory responsibility of the NCTE, it observed, is particularly significant because the quality of teacher preparation has a direct bearing on the effectiveness of elementary education.
The Court further stressed that accountability is intrinsic to regulatory governance. Requiring institutions to periodically disclose information concerning their functioning and performance was therefore viewed as a legitimate regulatory mechanism rather than an arbitrary administrative burden.
The judgment also carries an important message concerning judicial review of specialised regulatory decisions. The Supreme Court cautioned constitutional courts against adopting an excessively technical or pedantic approach while scrutinising measures taken by regulators acting within their institutional domain.
It observed that courts have a positive obligation to ensure that regulatory authorities exercise their powers effectively, efficiently and accountably, while simultaneously recognising that regulatory bodies require sufficient operational space to perform their statutory functions.
The ruling consequently restores the NCTE’s authority to require annual performance disclosures from recognised teacher education institutions and reinforces the principle that regulatory powers may extend to measures that are reasonably incidental to the statutory functions entrusted to an expert body.
The decision is likely to have wider implications for the regulatory architecture governing teacher education, particularly in relation to institutional accountability, maintenance of prescribed standards and continuing compliance by NCTE-recognised institutions.
By upholding the PAR requirement, the Supreme Court has effectively endorsed periodic institutional appraisal as a legitimate instrument of regulatory oversight, while simultaneously affirming that statutory regulators cannot be rendered ineffective by an unduly restrictive construction of their enabling legislation.
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