The 44 deemed universities facing de-recognition on the basis of the Tandon committee report suffered a set back with the Centre informing the Supreme Court on Wednesday that there was no ground to interfere with the conclusions of the committee report.
The panel appointed by the Human Resource Development Ministry in its findings said: “The committee of officers on examining the matter finds no reason to deviate from the conclusions drawn by the [Tandon] committee of experts.”
The report of the committee of experts was filed by the Centre in the Supreme Court after completing the process of review of these institutions.
By an order dated April 11, the court asked the Centre to appoint a committee to review the functioning of the 44 deemed universities faulted by the Tandon report, by issuing individual notices, drawing their attention to the deficiencies, seeking explanation and to pass appropriate orders. Pursuant to this order the Centre appointed the three-member committee of officers.
The 44 institutions then sent their individual responses to the deficiencies pointed out by the Tandon panel. Thereafter they were heard separately and were given a chance to make presentations whether the deficiencies had been rectified or not. The committee at the end of the review finally came to the conclusion that there was no ground to interfere with the findings of the Tandon report that these institutions did not fulfil the norms for a deemed university.
On the question whether any of these 44 institutions required to be upgraded to the second category, viz. three years to be granted for complying with various parameters or whether a particular course fell within the domain of innovation or emerging area, the officers said this was an academic exercise and this should be left to the experts.
The review followed an assurance given by the Centre in the Supreme Court that one more opportunity would be given to the institutions so that some of them could be upgraded into the second category. The case comes up for further hearing on November 22.
