The Supreme Court has granted 10 more weeks to the Centre to place its recommendations on the status of the 44 deemed varsities facing derecognition for failing to maintain proper academic standards.
A bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma granted the additional time while directing reconstitution of the three-member panel appointed by the government to examine the recommendations of the high-powered Prof P.N. Tandon committee which sought derecognition of these varsities.
The apex court, which was initially scheduled to hear the case on May 3, adjourned it till July 19 after additional solicitor general Indira Jaising sought 10 weeks time for placing the recommendations.
The three-member reconstituted panel would hear within six weeks the objections raised by the 44 aggrieved universities against the Tandon committee's recommendations and submit its own findings to the government.
The bench, while granting the government's plea, however, asked it to add one more member to the three-member panel since one of the incumbents Sunil Kumar has sought permission for withdrawing from it.
The apex court passed the order on a fresh writ petition filed by JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth Deemed University questioning the government's decision to persist with the continuance of Sunil Kumar despite the later expressing his desire to withdraw from the panel.
"In our considered view, the respondents (Centre) ought not to have insisted upon Shri Sunil Kumar to be a member of the Committee, particularly when he himself did not want to be a member of the committee.
"We direct the respondents to appoint another member in place of Shri Sunil Kumar. After appointing the new member in place of Shri Sunil Kumar, the central government through the new committee would give hearing to the 44 institutions and would submit a reasoned report to this court.
"Looking at the urgency of this matter, we direct the respondents to appoint the new member in place of Shri Sunil Kumar as expeditiously as possible, in any event, within three days from Tuesday," the bench said.
On January 15, 2010, the Supreme Court had directed the Centre to maintain status quo on the 44 deemed universities facing de-recognition for not being upto the standard.
It had further directed the union government to place on record the reports of the Review Committee and the Task Force on the basis of which the human resource development ministry had decided to crack the whip on the 44 universities.
It also asked the UGC to place its earlier report on the basis of which the ministry had accorded deemed status to these institutions.
The affected institutions said the de-recognition move was illegal as the UGC, which is a statutory authority, had accorded them approval after satisfying itself with their credentials.