The 44 deemed universities ordered to be closed by HRD minister Kapil Sibal in his zeal to cleanse the higher education system got a new lease of life on Wednesday with the Centre finally taking a virtual about turn on the issue and informing the top court that these institutions would be given a fresh opportunity to verify their infrastructure and faculty facilities.
A commitment to this effect was given to a bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma by Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati after the 44 universities issued notices of derecognition by the HRD ministry had approached the apex court last year.
The Tandon Committee, set up by the HRD ministry to examine the infrastructure, faculty and other facilities with 132 deemed universities, had found the same “grossly inadequate” at 44 universities and hence the ministry had issued them notices for withdrawal of recognition.
This had threatened the careers of about 200,000 students and the top court, while taking a lenient view mainly because so many students were being affected, had asked the government to take into consideration the interests of the students. At the same time it had asked the universities to take immediate steps to raise facilities to the minimum approved standards.
The A-G informed the bench that the HRD ministry would issue fresh notices to each university, giving them the opportunity to verify their facilities and, where the inspection was necessary, the same would be done by a competent authority.
The government promised to complete the whole exercise by April 25, and the court, after recording the statement of the AG, listed the matter for further hearing on May 3, by which time the ministry was directed to submit a “comprehensive” report on the exercise undertaken by it.
Till then, the top court continued its “status quo” order of last year, which had prevented the HRD ministry from taking any further action against any of the 44 universities.
During the hearing in the intervening period, the top court had even asked the state governments to explore the feasibility of affiliating the colleges under the 44 deemed universities to government universities, but that proposal seems to have not found any favour with them.