The Hindu : Front Page : Supreme Court declares 112 private universities in Chhattisgarh illegal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 12, 2005

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Supreme Court declares 112 private universities in Chhattisgarh illegal

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, FEB. 11. The Supreme Court today declared as unconstitutional a provision in the Chhattisgarh Private Sector Universities Act, 2002 permitting establishment of private universities for higher education. The court declared as null and void establishment of 112 such private universities under this law.

A three-Judge Bench, comprising the Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti, Justice G.P. Mathur and Justice P.K. Balasubramanyan, quashed Section 5 of the Act under which the State Government had issued notifications allowing the setting up of private universities.

The Bench held that all private universities established in the State (with branches in other places in the country) under the law would cease to exist. But to protect the interest of thousands of students of these universities, whose registration had been cancelled, the Bench directed affiliation of these institutions to universities which existed prior to the enactment of legislation.

The famous Rai University, Amity University, Mangalmay University, Lovely University, Global University, Supreme University, Manav Rachna University, Apple International University, Dolphin University, Crystal University, Aptech University and ICFAI Vishwavidhyalaya are among the 112 universities.

`No infrastructure'

The Bench was acting on a petition filed by Prof. Yashpal, former Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), questioning the legality of Section 5 of the legislation which gave a go-by to the role of the Commission which was vested with the sole authority to examine the infrastructure available with colleges and the courses prescribed by an institution before being conferred with a deemed university status.

"Teaching shops"

Mr. Yashpal contended that under this law the control of the UGC over the private universities had been done away with. They were nothing but teaching shops, some of them even functioning in shopping complexes. The guidelines issued by the UGC on the courses and award of degrees had been ignored by these universities. "Thus, it has led to degrees like `Member of the International Institute of Medical Sciences' and `Fellow of the International Institute of Medical Sciences' being offered by the universities."

He said the State Government had been establishing universities by issuing notifications in an indiscriminate and mechanical manner without having regard to the available infrastructure and as a result many universities had been established in Delhi, Bihar, Punjab, Mumbai, and other places under the Chhattisgarh law.

He sought a declaration that Section 5 of the Act was illegal and to direct the UGC and the State Government to discharge their statutory functions and duties imposed on them under the UGC Act and undertake systematic checks to ensure that the various guidelines for establishment of a university were followed in letter and spirit. The judges agreed with the petitioner's contentions and quashed the provision under the Act under which these universities were established.

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