SC allows admissions to 44 deemed universities

Forty-four deemed universities facing de-recognition got a breather on Thursday as the Supreme Court rejected the government’s plea that they be stopped from going ahead with fresh admissions for the session starting July.

Forty-four deemed universities facing de-recognition got a breather on Thursday as the Supreme Court rejected the government’s plea that they be stopped from going ahead with fresh admissions for the session starting July.

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Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, on behalf of the Union HRD ministry, requested the court to either stop the universities from admitting new students or declare in their prospectus the ongoing case against them in the Supreme Court.

But the court said it couldn’t pass any interim order as the validity of the government-appointed Tandon Committee — which advised de-recognition of the universities for allegedly failing to meet required standards — was “under challenge”.

“The constitution of the committee is itself under challenge, it has to be adjudicated first… It would not be appropriate for us to pass any injunction,” the court said.

Subramanium then urged the court to make the fresh admissions subject to the final outcome of the case.

In the meanwhile, he said, the court could continue to hear objections against the committee. But the court rejected this too.

The universities have alleged that since Tandon himself heads a deemed university, there is a conflict of interest in his appointment as head of the committee. The next nearing in the case is on August 3.