The Kerala High Court has held that universities have no power to impose a condition that affiliation for new courses would be dependent on getting a no objection certificate (NOC) from the State government.
The court passed the verdict while disposing of a clutch of writ petitions filed by some self-financing colleges challenging the notifications of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and the Kerala University of Health and Allied Sciences requiring the applicants for new courses to obtain an NOC from the State government.
The court said the provisions of the statutes did not show that the university was bound by a prior “approbation of the government.” They were not subservient to the government but were expected to act autonomously and independently under the provisions of the Acts.
The universities believed that they were under the executive control of the government and that it was under this misconception that they had acted in issuing the notifications mandating the applicants to obtain prior NOC from the government, the court said
The court observed that the universities had to act independently and dispassionately within the confines of the power granted to them under the Acts.
