New Delhi: The Supreme Court today issued
notice to the Centre on a petition challenging the validity of
the law conferring power on the Central government and the
University Grants Commission (UGC) to grant deemed university
status to an institute.
The PIL on the issue assumes importance as it has come at
a time when the government was held back by the apex court
from going ahead with its move to de-recognise 44 deemed
universities.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan,
Justices V S Sirpurakar and Deepak Verma sought a response
from the Centre and UGC on the contention that the power
conferred on the executive for granting deemed university
status to educational institutions are violative of the
Constitution.
Senior advocate Rohington F Nariman and Amit Anand
Tiwari, appearing for Patna-based consumer right activist
Jitendra Narayan Singh, contended the provision in the
University Grants Commission Act for granting deemed
university status has not been followed in spirit.
"The idea of deemed university was different," Nariman
said adding 124 institutes have been granted deemed university
status by the UGC by invoking section 3 of the Act.
-PTI
First Published: Friday, January 29, 2010, 22:13