Deemed Universities to know fate on Nov 22
The fate of Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth (TMV) in the city
and 43 other deemed universities (DUs) in the country, facing de-recognition of
their deemed status, will be decided on November 22 when their case is to be taken
up for final disposal by the Supreme Court (SC).
List these matters for final disposal on November 22, 2011. Interim orders granted
by this court to continue till the next date of hearing, the SC bench of justices
Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma stated in its latest order passed on August 24.
The court also directed the government to submit the report of a fresh inspection
of these universities by a three-member committee of the human resource development
(HRD) ministry headed by special secretary Ashok Thakur by October 17.
The courts order came after additional solicitor general Indira Jaisingh, appearing
for the government, submitted that the Thakur committee had given a hearing to 43
of the 44 institutions. The government needs some time to prepare the reports and
furnish the same to this court, she submitted. The hearing of the 44th institution,
Jain University at Bangalore, has been scheduled for September 5 or 6, 2011.
The bench has since stated in its order, Let the report be prepared and submitted
to this court after giving advance copies of the report to the learned counsel for
the concerned institutions on or before October 17, 2011.
Objections to the report, if any, be filed (by the institutions) within two weeks
and rejoinder thereto, if any, be filed (by the government) within two weeks thereafter,
the order stated.
Apart from TMV, the D Y Patil Medical College (DYPMC) in Kolhapur and the Krishna
Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) at Karad in Satara district are the other institutions
from Maharashtra which were listed by the HRD ministrys P N Tandon committee for
de-recognition owing to various deficiencies in 2009.
On January 11, the apex court had asked the government to make a submission on whether
the latter was willing to issue fresh notices to these 44 universities, giving them
one more chance to remove their deficiencies. The court then sought an apt inspection
and reports of each of these universities.
The ministry has since constituted the Thakur panel. Additional secretaries N K
Sinha and S K Ray are the other two members. Ray retired from service during the
course of this fresh exercise but has been allowed by the court to continue on the
panel.
It may be noted that the case has been pending before the apex court since 2006
following a public interest litigation filed by lawyer Viplav Sharma. The P N Tandon
committee was set up by the HRD ministry as a consequence of the proceedings in
the apex court for inspecting all the 126 deemed universities in the country.
In its report, the Tandon panel listed 38 institutions as truly worthy of continuing
with their deemed university status and another 44 institutions among those who
should be given a chance to improve over a period of three years.
The remaining 44 universities, including TMV, KIMS and DYPMC, were listed
among those with a recommendation for de-recognition of their deemed status. The
HRD ministry had decided to de-recognise these 44 universities. On January 25, 2010,
the apex court passed an interim order asking the government to maintain status
quo on the issue.
Courtesy: Times of India
