Violence broke out on Tuesday in one of the 17 educational institutions in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry set to lose their deemed university status, as panic gripped about 50,000 students studying in these colleges. With the Centre deciding to strip 44 educational institutions countrywide of their deemed university status, the managements of some of such universities in Tamil Nadu--some of them which are just a year old-- are planning to move the court.

Students of Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, near Chennai, damaged computers and boycotted classes, after their institution figured in the list.

As estimated 50,000 students are studying in 16 deemed universities in Tamil Nadu and one in Puducherry, mostly run by politicians. Bharat University, for example, is run by the children of Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting S Jagatratshagan.

"We would implead ourselves in the case", said Ishari K Ganesh, son of late Isari Velan, who was a Parliamentary Secretary during late MGR government and Chancellor of Vel's University.

The institutions were neither served any show cause notice nor were given any time to rectify alleged discrepancies, he said.

"Most of the universities are just about a year old and were given deemed university status after inspection of facilities and infrastructure by University Grants Commission panel," he said.

AIADMK MP M Thambidurai, patron of St. Peter's Institute of Higher Education Chennai, refused to comment on the institution figuring in the blacklist claiming he did not run any college.