Sixty-eight junior colleges, which failed to fulfil requirements of affiliation with Board of Intermediate Education (BIE), would be closed from next academic year, the State government told the Telangana High Court on Thursday.
In an additional affidavit filed by the BIE represented by its Secretary Omar Jaleel, the government assured the HC that all colleges without affiliation to BIE would be closed on completion of intermediate annual examinations on March 28. With intermediate annual examinations less than a week away, ‘immediate closure’ of these colleges would create panic in the minds of students studying there. Closure of the colleges would also mean cancellation of the hall tickets issued to them.
That would eventually delay the examination schedule itself, the officials said in the affidavit. A division bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy, which had been hearing a PIL plea on running of junior colleges without affiliation to BIE, earlier instructed the government to take action against such colleges.
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When the matter came up for hearing on Thursday, the bench perused the affidavit filed by the BIE and instructed the government to file a report by April 3 as to how many colleges were closed by it in compliance with the HC direction. In the affidavit, the government said that an inter-department meeting was held on February 20 by the officials following the HC instructions to initiate action against colleges which failed to comply with the conditions to secure affiliation with the BIE.
Special Chief Secretary, Education, Home Principal Secretary, Fire Services Director General, Collegiate Education Commissioner, BIE secretary and officials of GHMC and Higher Education attended the meeting. Subsequently, notices were issued to 18 colleges of Sri Chaitanya Educational Institutions, 26 colleges of Narayana Educational Institutions and 24 other colleges for failing to adhere to affiliation rules. Sri Chaitanya group had already given an undertaking to the BIE that it would not apply for affiliation of its 18 colleges for next academic year.
A 23-year-old social worker D. Rajesh filed the PIL alleging that managements of private junior colleges, including those run by Sri Chaitanya and Narayana groups, were not following rules relating to affiliation and facilities.
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On February 17, the bench instructed the government to take concrete steps against colleges operating without affiliation to BIE as future of students studying in such colleges would be at stake. The BIE filed an affidavit assuring to take action against 68 colleges that did not have BIE affiliation as their buildings had not complied with fire safety norms.
The matter would be heard again on April 7.