Action against new colleges subject to court decision

Aurangabad, June 28:

Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court comprising Justice S V Gangapur and Justice M G Sevilkar made it clear that the action against 65 new colleges would be subject to court judgement.

The State Government approved the perspective plan of new colleges for

Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (Bamu).

The university invited proposals for new colleges. It received 182 proposals from within its jurisdiction.

Following directives of the vice-chancellor, a committee of experts set up and sent to the colleges to verify the parameters, infrastructure, and facilities as per the Government norms dated September 15, 2017.

The committee submitted the report stating that the education societies do not fulfil the terms and conditions laid down in the Government orders. All the proposals were tabled in the Management Council meeting. The members rejected 170 proposals for not fulfilling Government norms.

The university administration recommended 12 new colleges proposals to the Government. The Government issued a letter of intent (LoI) to 65 new colleges, ignoring the university’s recommendations.

Management Council members Dr Rajesh Karpe and Dr Fulchand Salampure and Senator adv Sanjay Kalbande filed a petition through adv Nandkumar Khandare to challenge the Government's decision.

The petition stated that the Government ignored provisions given in the Maharashtra Public University Act 2016 about the new colleges.

“The Government has not given reasons for selecting 65 colleges. The university had recommended 12 proposals, while five were given LoI. The reason for rejecting seven proposals was disclosed. There is no need of new colleges as 54,438 seats were vacant in many colleges during the last year. The commencement of new colleges will lead to unnecessary competition and pollute the academic atmosphere,” the petition informed the Court.

The petitioners requested the court to cancel the Government orders about the new colleges.

The court issued orders on June 23 to serve notice to the respondents and permitted them to display it on the website of Bamu.

The next hearing has placed on August 4. The court said that action against the new colleges would be subject to the court decision.