44 institutions to lose deemed varsity status

New Delhi, January 18, 2010

The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that 44 institutions including the Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, founded by Union Minister S. Jagathrakshakan, would lose the deemed university status as they did not meet the standards.

(After becoming Minister, Mr. Jagathrakshakan has not been associated with the management of the Balaji Dental College and Hospital, the Balaji Medical College and Hospital, the Bharat Institute of Science and Technology, the Bharat College of Nursing, the Bharat College of Physiotherapy, and the Sri Lakshmi Narayana Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry.)

Students won’t suffer

The Centre, however, made it clear that an estimated 1,19,363 students enrolled in these 44 institutions at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, in addition to 2,124 students doing research in M.Phil and Ph.D. programmes and 74,808 students pursuing distance education programmes, would continue their studies as the colleges would continue to be affiliated to the universities to which they were earlier affiliated.

This information was given before a Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and A.K. Patnaik, hearing a petition filed by advocate Viplav Sharma seeking regulation of deemed universities.

The bulk of the 44 institutions are in Tamil Nadu: St. Peter’s Engineering College, Avadi; the Noorul Islam College of Engineering, Kumaracoil, Thuckalay; the Meenakshi Medical College and Research Institute, Kancheepuram, and other institutions run by this university; the Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute, Padur, the Chettinad College of Nursing; the Saveetha Dental College and Hospital; the Saveetha Medical College and Hospital and other institutions; the Arulmigu Kalasalingam College of Engineering, Virudhunagar; the Periyar Maniammai College of Technology, Thanjavur; the Academy of Maritime Education and Research, Chennai; Vel’s Institute of Science, Technology and Advanced Studies, Chennai; the Vel Tech Engineering College; the Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, Pollachi; Vinayaka Mission’s Research Foundation, Salem, and the Balaji Vidyapeeth, Puducherry.

Show-cause to MGR institute

In another case before a Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justices R.V. Raveendran and Deepak Verma, Solicitor-General Gopal Subramaniam said the Dr. MGR Educational and Research Institute running the Thai Moogambigai Dental College and Hospital and the Dr. MGR Engineering College, Chennai, was among the 44 institutions to which notices would be issued asking them to show cause why the deemed university status should not be cancelled.

The ACS Medical College, which admitted students in 2008-2009 and 2009-2010, would not be affiliated to the deemed university as the Human Resource Development Ministry decided not to accept the recommendation of the University Grants Commission.

The Bench disposed of the matter asking the Centre to pass appropriate orders within four weeks in the light of the UGC recommendations and other considerations.

Several aberrations

The Centre’s affidavit said a review committee, headed by Prof. P.N. Tandon, came across several aberrations in the functioning of some of the deemed universities. It found an undesirable management architecture in which families rather than professional academics controlled the institutions.

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