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The Supreme Court on Friday said University Grants Commission (UGC) had no option but to physically verify 41 deemed universities which were red-flagged by the Tandon Committee five years ago for deficiencies in infrastructure and faculty.
Seven of the 41 deemed universities had agreed to subject themselves to fresh physical verification, and not clearance granted after scrutinizing photographs and videos of these institutions.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Vikramjit Sen ordered UGC to complete physical verification of the institutions in three months and point out deficiencies, if any, to them. "Give them reasonable time to make good the deficiencies and then submit your report with recommendations on them to the Centre with a copy of it to the court," it ordered.
With UGC having already given its recommendations on 41 deemed universities, petitioner Viplav Sharma's counsel Sanjay Hegde pointed out that the other 34 and UGC could take a plea that the court had not ordered physical verification of institutions other than the seven.
The bench said the singular grievance against UGC was the adoption of verification through photographs and videos of institutions. Additional solicitor general Maninder Singh, appearing for UGC, too sought a clarification even when additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta on behalf of the Centre said he understood that these deemed universities could not escape physical verification.
The bench clarified, "We cannot conceive of such a method. In our opinion, physical verification from all scores and spectrum is a necessity. Neither the petitioners can give a restrictive meaning to it nor UGC can gloss over it by taking recourse to modern methods of photographs and videos. Physical verification is physical verification."
When Hegde repeated his apprehension, the bench said, "We expect UGC to behave. The writing is on the wall."
The bench said the problem was the trust deficit in UGC and it should realize that. "We as court cannot undertake judicial governance. UGC must act fair and square," it said.
This will compel UGC to conduct physical verification of all 41 deemed universities bracketed under deficient category before giving a report to the Centre.
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SC order on 41 deemed universities creates a dilemma for UGC
NEW DELHI: Supreme Court's order to carry out physical verification of 41 deemed universities has created a piquant situation for the University Grants Commission.
In case, physical verification report of UGC differs from its recent review report that recommended closure of seven out of 41 deemed universities, the Commission will have a lot of explaining to do about the manner and method it adopted. Any variation in report will also come as a shot in the arm for seven deemed universities that have been demanding physical verification.
Having got a breather of physical verification, few deemed universities are also likely to approach the apex court and demand that same be done for 126 deemed universities. Reason being that the Tandon Committee of 2009 did not visit any of the deemed universities before categorising them into three: Group A consisting of 38 good deemed universities; Group B of 44 deemed universities that could function after few corrective measures and Group C of 44 (three have moved out from this group) deemed universities that were found unfit.
It is also not clear what stand HRD ministry will take on the UGC review committee report. Ministry will have to soon file an affidavit stating its stand on the UGC report. But it did not foresee the events of the past few days and definitely did not anticipate SC ordering physical review. After the apex court order, ministry's choice is limited. It could ask the court to monitor the composition of the committees that will do the physical verification. Ministry's stand since 2009 has been that physical verification is not the most suitable method, since all the deemed universities were created in the first place after physical verification by UGC and in no time found unfit. In many cases there have been allegations of corruption against members of UGC committee who went for verification. HRD could reiterate this stand and seek SC's intervention in the creation of these committees.
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SC insists on fresh physical verification of 41 deemed universities
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday smelt a rat in University Grants Commission's decision to submit to the Centre a report on 41 deemed universities, facing de-recognition, after taking stock of their infrastructure and teaching faculty strength through video presentation.
A bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Vikramjit Sen had a few questions for additional solicitor general Maninder Singh, who appeared for UGC. "Why should you avoid physical inspection? These days, photographs can be dangerous...You do not purchase a house by seeing its photograph.
"Are you trying to tell us that you will analyze these institutions using photographs? We are not accepting this concept of inspection through video or photographs. Do not expect us to digest that there is no difference between 2009 inspection and 2014 inspection."
The bench became suspicious after it was informed by one of the 41 institutions that UGC's expert committee had called for video presentations and did not conduct on-the-spot inspection as mandated by Clause 4.16 of the UGC (relating to Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations 2010.
Bharath Institute for Higher Education and Research, through senior advocate Harish Salve, said it had nothing to hide and was willing for a fresh physical inspection. The bench ordered UGC to inspect the institution and wondered why a uniform order could not be passed for all 41 institutions.
UGC had last inspected the 41 deemed universities in November 2009 following the P N Tandon Committee report classifying them as "unfit" to be declared deemed universities.
Maninder Singh informed the court that UGC decided to evaluate the merit of each institution as it had to submit its report to the Centre by September 30. Its affidavit said, "Since the time frame given by this court regarding tendering of its advice to the central government was nearing conclusion, that is September 30, 2014, UGC in its September 22 meeting resolved... and as per the resolution of the commission's meeting, report/advice has been tendered to the central government on September 22."
The bench told UGC that in all its earlier orders, the commission had claimed no objection for fresh physical inspection. Singh said UGC even now had no objection to fresh physical verification of the deemed universities blacklisted by the Tandon panel.
Minutes of UGC's March 26, 2014 meeting had said, "At this stage, it is not possible to ascertain the current status of these institutions, more so in respect of their available physical and academic infrastructure as also in respect of their academic performance and research output. This would require that all the 41 institutions deemed to be universities are visited afresh by expert committees."
Some of the institutions objected to fresh physical inspection and asked the court to restrict its order to such institutions desirous of such re-inspection. "Why should you feel shy of physical verification," said the bench while posting the matter for detailed hearing on Friday.
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SC puts conditions on functioning of 41 deemed universities
NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Thursday put conditions on the functioning of 41 deemed universities, questioning University Grants Commision's hurry to allow them to start operations.
"The universities can not be allowed to operate without physical verification of their infrastructure and teaching faculty strength," the apex court said.
These 41 deemed universities were found deficient in 2009 but the UGC appeared to be in a hurry to allow majority of them to start operations.
SC took umbrage to UGC's hurry and said not a single deficient deemed university would be allowed to function without fresh physical verification of their infrastructure and faculty.
The top court posted the matter for September 26 to get government and UGC view on fresh verification of 41 deemed universities.
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Seven deemed universities found unfit by UGC face uncertain future
NEW DELHI: Students of seven deemed universities found unfit by a UGC panel are staring at an uncertain future. Four of them are from Tamil Nadu, two from Haryana and one from Rajasthan.
These are
Vinayaka Mission's Research Foundation, Salem;
Academy of Maritime Education & Training, Karathur;
Bharath Institute of Higher Education & Research, Chennai;
Ponnaiyah Ramajayam Institute of Technology & Science, Thanjavur (all from Tamil Nadu) and
Maharshi Markandeshwar University, Mullana- Ambala and
Manav Rachna International University, Faridabad (from Haryana).
Institute of Advanced Studies in Education, Sardarshahr, is the lone institute from Rajasthan.
However, a final decision on their fate will be taken by the Supreme Court. The HRD ministry will now submit the report to the apex court. UGC had sought time till September 30 to complete its work on the report. "The UGC review committee's report reinforces the need to review all deemed universities ignoring the arbitrary A, B and C classifications of the Tandon Committee and in the process clean the existing mess in the deemed university system," said S Vaidyasubramaniam of Sastra University.
UGC sources said recommendation of withdrawal of deemed university status does not mean these institutes will close down. They can continue as educational institutions but will have to get affiliated to some university. "Future of students will not be compromised," a source said.
Seven of these institutions were in the list of 41 deemed universities found unfit by Tandon Committee in 2009. But according to the UGC report, five years later, 34 of the 41 have made enough improvements to continue as deemed universities. However, the committee has recommended physical verification in case of a few of the 34 deemed universities cleared.
Tested on nine parameters by the Tandon Committee, these seven universities had scored poorly. Vinayaka Mission scored 2 marks, Bharath 13, Academy of Maritime Education & Training got 3, Poonaiyah Ramajayam zero, Maharishi Markandeshwar 10 marks, Manav Rachna 8 and Institute of Advanced Studies could get seven marks.
Nine parameters on which they were evaluated are consideration of the idea of a university; whether all their present academic activities and programmes could have been carried out without being a deemed university; conformity to the provisions of the UGC Act and UGC guidelines; aspects of governance; quality of and innovations in teaching-learning process; research output; doctoral and other research degree programme; faculty resource, admission processes and award of degrees.
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