The Supreme Court today asked the Indian High Commissioner and Consulate General in Australia to help prevent Indian students from falling prey to fake educational institutions there.
The order was passed by a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan after it was informed by Attorney General G E Vahanvati that all the guidelines have been laid down for students going to Australia for education purposes.
Cases of students being duped by fake universities in Australia had come to light when a petition was filed seeking a direction to the government to take action to check racial attacks against Indians studying there.
The Attorney General said that the affidavit filed by the Ministry of External Affairs has mentioned the websites which the students should go through for verification of the universities.
The Apex Court after hearing the AG’s submission said that in view of the affidavit, it was disposing of the petition.
At the outset, the Attorney General said Government had done everything for the welfare of Indian students opting for studies in Australia and refuted the contention of the petitioner that no guidelines were in place to protect them from fake universities there.
Advocate D K Garg, who appeared for petitioner Ranveer Yadav, had alleged that the Government was not serious about the problem of Indian students being trapped by fake universities in Australia from where they had to come back without completing their courses.
However, the Bench, also comprising Justices P Sathasivam and B S Chauhan, was not impressed with the submission and said it cannot do much about the universities in Australia.
“Can we derecognise universities in Australia,” the Bench asked and said, “we are unable to control universities in India“.
When the advocate repeatedly raised the issue that government should come out with the list of recognised universities in Australia, the Bench observed, “Do you think government is not aware of this problem?”
It said the suggestion made was good but the problem lay with the students as they were not seeking information from the Australian High Commission and Indian Consulates there.
