New Delhi, June 6: The University Grants Commission is set to lift a two-year ban on Tata Institute of Fundamental Research's Hyderabad campus that was imposed over alleged lack of permission.

The commission will meet tomorrow to discuss granting approval and, according to senior UGC officials, the proposal is likely to be approved. Founded in 1945, the Mumbai-based TIFR, a deemed university, is a premier research institution under the Centre's department of atomic energy (DAE).

Then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had laid the foundation for the TIFR's Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences (TCIS) in Hyderabad in 2010. The centre had opened and admitted some research students.

However, in November 2015, the UGC asked 10 institutions, including TIFR, to close down their off-campus centres within a month. The institutions protested, saying they were not given an opportunity to present their case, after which the UGC set up a committee to examine their cases.

The TIFR had to transfer all the students in Hyderabad to the main campus in Mumbai. One of the other affected institutions, Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), moved court.

UGC officials had claimed the off-campus centres were opened without the permission of the Union HRD ministry and the UGC, violating rules for deemed universities.

Amol Dighe, a faculty member at the TIFR, said the research activities at the Hyderabad centre had been approved and funded by the department of atomic energy and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).

Now, the UGC committee has recommended approving the campus, and the HRD ministry has prodded the higher education regulator to accept the suggestion. Once the approval is given, admissions for the Hyderabad centre can start from the 2017 session.

Deemed universities need prior approval for off-campus centres from the HRD ministry, which takes a decision based on the UGC's suggestions.

The other centres found illegal in 2015 included a Bhubaneswar branch of the Homi Bhabha National Institute. The UGC approved it last year just before a visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the campus.

The UGC sources said there was no proposal to clear the centres of the other institutions.