HC orders inspection of Deemed varsities by UGC, AICTE

Chennai, Jul 13: The Madras High Court today held that the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) must jointly conduct inspections in the Deemed Universities in Tamil Nadu within three months,following which the UGC should take suitable action.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Ms Justice Prabha Sridevan, passed the order while disposing of a batch of petitions from the Sathyabhama Institute of Science and Technology and 21 other deemed to be universities.

The petitioners sought to declare sections 10 (O) and 11 of the AICTE Act relating to the powers of the AICTE prescribing guidelines for admission and inspection of their colleges, as unconstitutional and arbitrary.

They also prayed that the court consequently restrain the AICTE from interferring in their affairs in any manner.

In its order, the Bench said the AICTE was neither a silent spectator nor a passive player. It would act in consultation with the UGC. It was clear that all was not well with the deemed to be universities. It was true, some of the petitioners had produced documents relating to the standards of excellence that have been achieved by the particular deemed to be university.

But there were obviously deemed to be universities which had not cared to maintain standards of quality that they are bound to maintain, the Bench said.

This sad state of affairs cannot continue, the Bench observed.

The Bench held that section 2, 10 (g) and (o) and section 11 of the AICTE act were valid and in accordance with the provisions of the Act and cannot be challenged.

The Bench quashed the public notice of February 2006, issued by the AICTE, notifying regulations for grant of approval for establishment of new technical institutions, courses and intake.

The notice also stated that no existing technical institutions of government, government aided or private self-financing institutions affiliated or not affiliated to a university will conduct any technical course without prior approval of the AICTE.

The defaulting institutions were liable for stringent legal action, including action under the provisions of the IPC and other Indian laws for conducting courses or programmes without prior approval of the AICTE, it observed.

The Bench said the provisions of AICTE regulations 2005 were set aside as they were inconsistent with section ten and 11 of the AICTE Act and the provisions of the UGC as far as deemed to be Universities were concerned. The AICTE, under section 11 of the AICTE Act and the UGC under section 13 of the UGC Act were empowered to inspect the Universities to ensure that the standards and norms were maintained, the Bench added.

The Bench said, normally, before the AICTE conducts any inspection, it should request the UGC to send a member of the UGC to be part of the Inspection Committee. If the UGC did not not depute such a member within a reasonable time, the AICTE could proceed to conduct the inspection and forward its report alongwith its conclusions if any to the UGC for it to take action.

All the deemed to be Universities in this state should respond to the notice given by AICTE and the UGC within a period of four weeks from the date of this order, if they had not done so.

Thereafter, the UGC and AICTE should jointly conduct the inspection within a period of three months from the date of this order and the UGC should take such action as it deemed fit, the Bench added.

The Bench also observed that in the interest of the student community,it was desirable that the UGC actively ensured the maintainance of standards in the deemed to be universities in the State either by itself or with the help of AICTE, so that a situation like the present one did not arise in future.

All the deemed to be universities in the State should post on their websites, information regarding the nature of courses offered by them, the intake approved of, the date of UGC's approval and the details of the corresponding increase in the infrastructure facilities.

The websites should also place details if intake had been increased or new courses have been introduced, the dates of inspection by the UGC/AICTE and the results, if any and another information that the deemed to be universities wished to be placed on the websites in order to ensure complete transparency in their working, the Bench added.

UNI