Thaindian News

New Delhi, Feb 25 (IANS) The central government has told the Supreme Court that while it proposes to divest sub-standard colleges of the deemed university tag after giving each of them a hearing, the students of such institutions would be accommodated elsewhere.
The union Ministry for Human Resource Development made this submission in an affidavit filed in the apex court registry Wednesday.

The government filed its affidavit in response to a lawsuit by advocate Viplaw Sharma, questioning the government’s stance in according deemed university status to increasing numbers of educational institutions, which allegedly have been doubling up as educational shops.

Presenting its roadmap to the apex court on how it planned to divest sub-standard institutions of their “deemed university” tag, the affidavit said the fate of 44 such institutions would be decided on a case to case basis.

“Each of the institutions, carrying the deemed university tag, but prima facie not deserving to retain the prestigious status, will be communicated their shortcomings and will be given an opportunity to explain as to why their status as deemed university should not be revoked,” said the government in its affidavit.

“After receipt of their reply and due consideration thereof, the government will pass an appropriate order in each case. All this will be done in a reasonable time frame,” the government said.

Reacting to the voicing of public concern over the mushrooming of educational shops, which fleeced students in the garb of deemed universities, the government had earlier appointed an expert panel to examine the functioning of deemed universities.

The panel after probing the working of 126 deemed universities across the country approved the tag for only 38. It sought stripping of the tag for 44, and said that 44 other institutions needed to be watched over for the next three years.