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Association of Indian Universities suspends Al-Falah Univ, says not in good standing
AIU secretary Pankaj Mittal said that universities were treated as members only as long as they remained in “good standing” under the association bye-laws.
NEW DELHI: The Association of Indian Universities (AIU) suspended the membership of Al-Falah University in Faridabad on Thursday, after a police probe into the Red Fort car explosion connected a group of individuals with links to the university to the terrorist attack.
In a letter to Al-Falah University vice chancellor Bhupinder Kaur Anand, AIU secretary Pankaj Mittal said that universities were treated as members only as long as they remained in “good standing” under the association bye-laws.
“However, as per media reports, it has come to notice that Al-Falah University, Faridabad, Haryana does not appear to be in good standing,” the letter said.
Consequently, the university’s membership “stands suspended with immediate effect”. It has the university was “not authorized to use the name or logo of AIU in any of its activities,” and that it must immediately remove the AIU logo from the university’s official website.
AIU is an advisory body under the Union education ministry which evaluates and recognises degrees, diplomas and qualifications from Indian and foreign universities and provides equivalence certificates.
The AIU action comes a day after the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) on Wednesday issued a show-cause notice to Al-Falah University after discovering that it had falsely claimed to hold an ‘A’ grade accreditation that had expired years ago.
Both the Al-Falah School of Engineering and Technology and the Al-Falah School of Education and Training lost their NAAC accreditation in 2018 and 2016, respectively, and have not renewed it since. The university has been directed to immediately remove all false accreditation claims from its website and public materials, report compliance to NAAC, and respond to the notice within seven days.
Once known for its sprawling campus in Faridabad, the Al-Falah Medical College under the Al-Falah University is under intense scrutiny after investigators described it as a “refuge for terror-linked individuals operating under professional cover.”
A joint team of the Jammu & Kashmir Police and the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has searched the Dhauj-based medical college, which has emerged as the common link in the Red Fort blast case that killed at least 11 people earlier this week.
Four doctors associated with the college — Dr Umar Un-Nabi, Dr Muzammil Shakeel Ganaei, Dr Shaheen Shahid, and Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan — have come under the scanner for alleged connections to the terror module behind the attack.
In a statement, university vice chancellor Bhupinder Kaur on Wednesday said that the institution has no connection to the doctors arrested in connection with the terror module busted in Faridabad and the Delhi Red Fort blast “apart from them working in their official capacity”.
The university, established in 2014 by the Al-Falah Charitable Trust, offers a wide range of programmes in engineering, medical and health sciences, management (MBA), commerce, science, humanities, and teacher education, along with diploma and doctoral (PhD) courses. The trust had earlier founded an engineering college in 1997 and a teachers’ training school in 2006 before the institution gained university status in 2014.
