SC blow to pvt varsity Act

The PIL listed 90 universities, including ICFAI Vishwavidyalaya, Dr C.V. Raman Vishwavidyalaya, Bits University, Amity University, Rai Unviersity and Aptech Unviersity.

The enormity of the situation could be guaged from the fact that even the petitioner was unable to give the exact number of universities that had come up. ‘‘To the best of knowledge, so far, 112 universities have already been established within a span of one yaer,’’ the petition claimed.

While quashing the contoversial provision, the Court was, however, careful not to push the students who registered with the unviersities bonafide. These insititutes have been given the option of approaching the duly recognised universities for recognition.

The law had invited much criticism with reports saying many of the universities ran from one-room tenements, an allegation repeated in the PIL. ‘‘After coming into force of the said Act, the state government has been establishing universities simply by issuing notifications in the Gazette in an indiscriminate and mechanical manner without any regard to the available infrastructure and glotting over UGC guidelines,’’ Yashpal added.