Maharashtra: Institutes using National Award titles in names get Centre’s warning
Pune Newsline had highlighted the issue last month; some of these institutes had taken out the titles after the report
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While Dr DY Patil Vidya Pratishthan Society has already taken measures to remove ‘Padma Shree’ from its institutes’ names, some other educational institutes continue to violate the SC order. For instance, the ones run by Padmabhushan Vasantdada Patil Pratishthan (right).
On July 26, The Indian Express had reported how several educational institutes in the city and Ahmednagar were violating the Supreme Court (SC) order by using National Awards like Padma Shree, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and Bharat Ratna with their names.
The report followed a complaint filed by the Delhi-based social activist Naresh Kadyan to the online grievance cell of the Ministry of Home Affairs in which he alleged contempt of court by educational institutes in and around Pune.
Now, the Ministry has written to the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra about the use of Padma Awards and Bharat Ratna as prefixes in institutes in Pune and asked the state to look into the matter, stating that as “the National Awards do not amount to ‘titles’ within the meaning of Article 18(1) of the Constitution of India, they should not be used as prefixes or suffixes.”
The letter, signed by Pradeep Kumar Pandey, Under Secretary (Public), also says, “We have been informing all the Padma awardees about it with the advice that they should not prefix or suffix the Padma Award to their name.”
The institutes caught violating the SC order include Dr DY Patil College of Architecture (Akurdi); Dr Vasantdada Patil of Architecture (Mulshi); Dr DY Patil Institute of Management Studies (Nigdi Pradhikaran); Rayat Shikshan Sanstha’s Bharat Ratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar College (Aundh); Dr Vithalrao Vikhe Patil Foundation’s College of Physiotherapy (Ahmednagar); Dr Vithalrao Vikhe Patil Foundation’s College of Pharmacy (Ahmednagar); Dr Vithalrao Vikhe Patil Foundation’s College of Engineering (Ahmednagar) and Dr Vithalrao Vikhe Patil Foundation’s Institute of Business Management and Rural Development (Ahmednagar).
The SC order, dated December 15, 1995, also said that “if the aforesaid is done, the defaulter should forfeit the National Award conferred upon him or her by following the procedure laid down in Regulation 10 of each of the four notifications creating these National Awards.”
A letter has also been sent by the Home Ministry to Dr Vithalrao Vikhe Patil College of Engineering, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar College and Vasantdada Patil Pratishthan College of Engineering seeking explanation and comments within 15 days regarding the alleged use of National Awards with the name of the institutes in violation of the SC order. The website of Vasantdada Patil Pratishthan institutes http://www.pvppcoe.ac.in/ still carries the Padma Bhushan title. Likewise, the websites of institutes run under the name of Dr Vithalrao Vikhe Patil http://enggnagar.com/ show Padma Shree as prefix in their names.
A similar letter has been written by the Home Ministry to Dr DY Patil College of Architecture seeking explanation about the violation by the college and its sister institutes.
Though till July 26, when Pune Newsline report was carried, the websites of all these institutes displayed names of the institutes with Pad, an abbreviation of Padma Shree, the websites currently carry the names sans Padma Shree.
An official from the Dr DY Patil Vidya Prathishthan Society said, “We have removed the word Padma Shree not only from the websites, but also from all the places in the campus and institute buildings.”
In response to the Ministry’s letter, Dr PD Patil, chairman of Dr DY Patil Vidya Pratishthan Society, wrote to Anuj Sharma, director (A&V), Ministry of Home Affairs, “The Society at its Governing Body meeting dated October 21, 2014, had resolved that ‘Padma Shri’ word should not be used as suffixes or prefixes in any of names of colleges/institutes under the Pratishthan. Regarding, Dr DY Patil Arts, Commerce & Science College, Pimpri, we have already approached the NAAC on August 10, 2016, to remove the word ‘Padma Shri’ from the name of the institute. The college has also approached various statutory bodies such as Savitribai Phule Pune University and Joint Director, Higher Education, Pune Region, for removing the Padma Shri from the title of the institute.”
“It is not the fault of the National Awardees but of those who are running these institutes. The trust should be penalised. Besides, responsibility should be fixed even of the government officials who have ignored this serious and unconstitutional offence. Although a few institutes have admitted their mistake, marksheets issued by them still carry the Padma titles. An inquiry should be called to check their bank A/C details, whether there too the name has Padma title as a suffix,” said Kadyan.
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