The Supreme Court has directed the setting up of a committee to study the functioning of private universities, particularly their admission, recruitment and funds management practices.
A division bench of Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and N.V. Anjaria passed the order on February 26 while hearing a petition filed by a student of the Noida-based Amity University who was allegedly harassed over her request for changing her name in the university records.
Based on the student’s plea, the apex court had on November 20 last year asked the Union and state governments and the UGC to provide details of regulatory mechanisms governing the nearly 500 private universities in the country and their compliance. The states, UTs and UGC have filed the affidavits.
In its order last month, the top court directed the setting up of a committee headed by R.M. Sharma, the chairperson of the child safety monitoring committee constituted by Delhi High Court. Sharma can appoint up to three members to the panel.
The panel will go through all the affidavits and prepare a detailed report on the “issues flagged by this court in its previous orders vis-a-vis what is reflected from the ground reality as disclosed in the affidavits filed on behalf of the respective parties”.
On November 20, the bench had directed the states, UTs and the UGC to provide details about private universities on their admission policy, faculty recruitment process and regulatory mechanisms.
The court wanted to know “whether such institutions... are functioning on the stated/advertised ‘no profit, no loss’ basis? How and under what authority have the Government(s) enforced this and ensured no diversion of money towards anything unconnected with the educational institution?”