No new self-financed junior colleges in Maha in 2020-21?

Maharashtra may not get new self-financed junior colleges and schools in the upcoming academic year (2020-21), with the Bombay high court’s (HC) order on Tuesday

Maharashtra may not get new self-financed junior colleges and schools in the upcoming academic year (2020-21), with the Bombay high court’s (HC) order on Tuesday restraining the government from granting permissions. The existing self-financed colleges, many of which are run by coaching institutes, too, may not get their registrations renewed until a notification from the court.

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On Tuesday, a division bench of justice SC Dharmadhikari and justice RI Chagla prohibited the education department from processing any new application for schools and junior colleges under the Maharashtra Self-Financed Schools (Establishment and Regulation) Act, 2012 until further orders.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Manju Jaiswal, who complained that 54 coaching classes being run as colleges were flouting norms.

Rajendra Ahire, deputy director of education, said, “According to the interim order of the court, proposals for new self-financed schools and junior colleges would not be considered at the moment. We will wait for the court to give further instructions. Till then, all such proposals will be on hold.”

The affidavit, filed by the office of the deputy director in response to the petition, disclosed that 28 of the 54 coaching classes did not have the infrastructure to be called a college and were just coaching centres for entrance tests.

When asked about the action to be taken in these cases, Ahire said they would wait for an official order from the government. “We have not received any order from the government yet,” he added.

With the affidavit stating that the government was yet to appoint authorities to scrutinise new applications, the court observed that the state machinery is not fully functional to implement the Maharashtra Self Finance Schools (Establishment and Regulation) Act, 2012.

Recently, 120 students from a coaching class which runs junior colleges in Andheri, Borivli and Thane had to fill their HSC exam forms from other colleges, as the college failed to get the board index number in time. Officials from the education department said many other coaching class-run-colleges, which got permissions in 2019, are yet to submit their documents and might face the same issues in the future.

An owner of a coaching chain that runs junior colleges said, “The interim order will not affect us as we have all permissions.”

The state education department recently started the admission process for first-year junior college and invited tenders from private companies for the online process. Usually, new proposals are cleared every year between February and May.