New Delhi, Aug. 3: The Supreme Court on Tuesday commenced arguments in the contentious deemed universities issue with counsel for 44 derecognised varsities questioning the recommendations to this effect by HRD ministry’s special Committee, and the government justifying its decision.
The senior advocate, Mr K.K. Venugopal, attacked the Tandon committee, for recommending the withdrawal of recognition to 44 deemed university, granted during the tenure of the former HRD minister, Mr Arjun Singh. Mr Venugopal raised questions on the “moral authority” of the Prof. P.N. Tandon Committee, claiming that he himself was heading a deemed university in Haryana. In such a situation, he should have refrained from heading the panel, he said.
But the solicitor-general, Mr Gopal Subramaniam, defended the decision of the HRD ministry, under Mr Kapil Sibal in UPA-II, saying after various shortcomings were found in the basic minimum required infrastructure with these universities, the government was right to use its powers to withdraw the recognition.
“The power to accord recognition of the deemed status to any institution also includes the power to withdraw the same if gross irregularities were found in its functioning,” the solicitor general told a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma, before Mr Venugoapl took charge to open arguments in the case.
The apex court wanted to expedite the matter as early as possible in view of the interests of thousands of students.
The court earlier had directed that to protect the career of the students, the deemed universities reverted back to their earlier status as educational institutions, would seek affiliation from close by recognised universities so that no question mark were raised on the degrees awarded to the students.
Most of the 44 institutions fighting for restoration of their deemed university status are located in three southern states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.