Noting that the issue involved vital public interest affecting thousands of students, the apex court asked the government to place before it the reports of the high-powered review committee and the task force on the basis of which the Centre wanted to crack the whip on these institutions.
The court will hear the arguments on March 9, including the lawsuits filed by the aggrieved institutions against the ministry of human resources development (HRD) for proposing to scrap their deemed status.During hearings on the long-pending petitions, the government had filed a detailed affidavit saying it would scrap the recognition of 44 institutions that were considered deemed universities. At least two lakh students are studying in these institutions.
A bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and AK Patnaik, which had earlier asked the government about the efficacy of deemed universities, issued notices to the aggrieved institutions and others.
Attorney-general Goolam E Vahanvati said that the centre would submit within two weeks the reports of the review committee and the task force that went into the functioning of 126 institutions that were granted deemed university status by the HRD ministry.
Dispelling the general apprehension that the ministry would rush to squash their deemed university status, Vahanvati assured the court that “there is no automatic derecognition.”
When lawyers representing these institutions sought a directive
that the government shouldn’t do anything to change the status of the 44 deemed universities till the matter was finally disposed of, the bench remarked: “Nothing is being done in the pending matter.”
The procedure to be adopted (for revoking the deemed university status) should satisfy the rule of natural justice. The court also said that if that wasn’t done, it would have to “step in”.
When the lawyers pointed out that there was “panic” and “frustration” among the students enrolled in these universities, the bench said “care should be taken that a situation must not arise that would put in peril the future of these students.” The judges asked: “How are you (HRD ministry) going to protect their (students) future? You have to give a road map.”
Former attorney-general K Parasaran said “there are black sheep in every walk of life, but don’t paint us (deemed universities) all in black”. The government’s decision, he said, amounted to “making (someone) a widow even before her marriage is solemnised.” He said the students enrolled in these universities were mid-way through their courses and their parents had paid for it. The judges assured them that “not a single student will be affected.”
HRD minister Kapil Sibal has already said that students would not suffer. “We are going to take care of all students. And government’s intention is not to put any student in problem. All students will get a university degree,” he said last week.
Among the institutes facing the heat are Jaypee Institute of Information, Noida, Gurukul Kangri Biswavidyalaya, Hardwar, National Museum Institute of History of Art, New Delhi, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Satara, DY Patil Medical College, Kolhapaur, Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, Pune, and several institutions in Tamil Nadu and six in Karnataka.
The aggrieved varsities took a consistent view that the review committee and the task force did not give them sufficient opportunity before taking a decision. In fact, senior counsel Rajeev Dhawan said the views of the colleges were heard barely for three to five minutes by the two committees which, he said, also lacked statutory powers to decide on such issues.
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