Yes true to the caption Kapil Sibal, again in his cavalier style has indeed ensured that the Human Resource Ministry’s acceptance of ‘Tandon Committee Report’ recommending without much ado derecognition of 44 Deemed Universities followed by another 44 in the next three years opens a Pandora’s Box. It is informed that on 18 August, 2009 representatives of these select Universities were called by the said ‘Tandon Committee’ constituted by Ministry of HRD for a 10 minutes presentation. It is alleged by the Universities that such a short hearing without any transparent parameters indeed became a meaningless exercise and a mockery of the process which is evident from the fact that 126 Deemed Universities were heard in just 4 days and each one of them was given a mere 10 minutes, wherein only a formal introduction was really possible. It is also alleged by the Universities in affidavits now before the Supreme Court that very insinuating remarks were made and frivolous questions were posed with little academic rigor or relevance as borne out by a video graphic recording that was made, again without prior knowledge of the Universities. Incidentally on verification from the Ministry of HRD sources it is confirmed that till date no copy of the said Report has been furnished or the minimum standards of assessment or parameters were ever been defined or the observations of the Committee been informed to the Universities concerned before recommending the purported action of de-recognition.
Although Education in our country is in the concurrent list, upholding, regulating and maintaining the quality in higher education happens to be the responsibility of Central Government as recently settled by Calcutta High Court which had declared several teacher-training institutions in Bengal illegal as they did not meet NCTE requirements despite their meeting state government standards. In due fairness to the Deemed Universities the purported ‘Tandon’ review exercise was limited to only the Deemed Universities that even included the de novo category, many a cases had not even completed the first five years, before a review was to be undertaken as per their gazette notifications. Highly aggrieved, notes one of the promoters, having invested huge amounts and despite conforming to every possible guideline issued by the University Grants Commission and the Trust byelaws and regulations that were open to public scrutiny and having the best possible educational standards they have been derecognized by the Government and condemned unlawfully, unheard and hence deprived of the Principle of Natural Justice. The exercise surprisingly enough had spared the State Private Universities and other Central and State Universities where despite huge public expenditures over a number of years no such review was even contemplated. On a cue from the Ministry of HRD, the print and the visual media immediately started a concerted campaign and initiated their own media trial against some of these Universities, surprisingly oblivious of the even poorer standards of the State Universities, State recognized Private Universities and other Central Universities barring a few notable exceptions. Some of the Universities assert that their reputation has been tarnished irrevocably without any level playing field with that of any of the Central, State or even the State Private Universities that now dot the landscape. They wonder that in the years to come any private capital or enterprise would again dare venture in the arena of higher education in India. It is their case that they have been condemned unheard through an affidavit filed by the Union Of India through the Ministry of HRD before the Hon'ble Supreme Court in a Writ Petition that initially had only sought effective regulation of the Deemed to be Universities that were to be created under Sec 3 UGC Act in W.P. No 142 of 2006. Obviously the babudom in the Ministry of HRD had the better of the Minister Kapil Sibal who was caught unaware as could be made of from his own press statements of this backdoor attempt by the mandarins in power not only to subvert the administrative mechanism in place but also the due process of law and natural justice.
It has been stated in the affidavit to the Supreme Court that the Ministry of HRD has already accepted the findings and recommendations given by a ‘Task Force’ that was earlier referred to as ‘Tandon Committee’ seeking non continuation of various “Deemed to be Universities” and the list forwarded alongwith the affidavit that gives the names of the 44 Universities purportedly found unfit and recommended to be derecognized.
Amusingly, enough it is also understood that the Chairman of this Task Force, Prof. P.N. Tandon, himself is the President of the society of one of the Deemed Universities (under De-Novo category) named National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, Haryana that was recommended to be one of the 38 Universities found to be fit out of the total list of 126 reviewed by him. The fact also remains that one of the members of the said Tandon Committee, Shri Sunil Kumar happened to be one of the handpicked bureaucrats of the then HRD Minister Arjun Singh, who was instrumental in having these Institutions declared as Deemed to be Universities. This indeed makes a mockery of the entire review exercise, notwithstanding the fact that a closer scrutiny reveals that the report of the Tandon Committee appears to have been drafted more on pre-conceived notions and personal prejudice than on facts based on an onsite inspection or on merits as evidenced by a sweeping remark made in the affidavit of Union of India made for all the 44 Universities found to be unfit and the other 44 having been granted further 3 years before their derecognition or otherwise. All canons of judicial propriety appear to have been thrown to the winds as primafacie no natural justice or due process appears to have been followed by the Committee in its proceedings and even subsequently no opportunity or representation appears to have been offered in arriving at the reportedly biased conclusions and assigning any specific reasons for such a recommendation or its acceptance even by the Ministry of HRD.
It also transpires that the UGC, a statutory body, under its Act had earlier appointed an expert committee to visit these institutions and the Deemed to be University status was granted only after a thorough on site inspection, interaction and physical verification of all aspects by the Ministry of Human Resource Development vide its gazette notifications under Section 3 of UGC Act 1956. This apparently means parliamentary sanction subject to compliance of necessary official formalities and procedures and therefore acceptance of the report and recommendations of such derecognition by the Ministry without parliamentary approval may attract breach of privilege as well. Well now the question is as to who are the culprits behind the unilateral and subjective decision, as there appears to be not only a denial and miscarriage of justice but also a grave, deliberate and serious distortion of procedures and physical verifications required to be followed before such a drastic action is resorted to with questionable motives.
Many of these Universities particularly in remote and rural heartland were infact fulfilling the mandate of Government of India working on various projects with different government and non-government bodies that were in any case based on independent inspections. Some of these Universities included the likes of Gurukul Kangri an age old Institution, Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development and many Universities graded much higher than to even some of the IITs and Central Government Universities. It is lamented by these Universities, a few of whom were accredited as ISO 9001-2000 Institutions with academic collaborations and independent academic validations with several reputed foreign Universities, Industries and Institutions. This act has not only brought immense disrepute to our country internationally through media trial and much mudslinging that has indeed hampered the future of the Universities in question besides impacting the excellent academic environment and healthy relations with their student fraternity.
It is left to be seen if the Supreme Court would indeed intervene immediately and to rectify the enormous harm already done by scrapping the said ‘Tandon Committee’ findings and recommendations and appoint a fresh Committee with no conflict of interest and proper representation to look into all aspects to assess performances on well defined and laid down transparent and recognized parameters on a uniform basis for all public and private Universities in national interest.
Although Education in our country is in the concurrent list, upholding, regulating and maintaining the quality in higher education happens to be the responsibility of Central Government as recently settled by Calcutta High Court which had declared several teacher-training institutions in Bengal illegal as they did not meet NCTE requirements despite their meeting state government standards. In due fairness to the Deemed Universities the purported ‘Tandon’ review exercise was limited to only the Deemed Universities that even included the de novo category, many a cases had not even completed the first five years, before a review was to be undertaken as per their gazette notifications. Highly aggrieved, notes one of the promoters, having invested huge amounts and despite conforming to every possible guideline issued by the University Grants Commission and the Trust byelaws and regulations that were open to public scrutiny and having the best possible educational standards they have been derecognized by the Government and condemned unlawfully, unheard and hence deprived of the Principle of Natural Justice. The exercise surprisingly enough had spared the State Private Universities and other Central and State Universities where despite huge public expenditures over a number of years no such review was even contemplated. On a cue from the Ministry of HRD, the print and the visual media immediately started a concerted campaign and initiated their own media trial against some of these Universities, surprisingly oblivious of the even poorer standards of the State Universities, State recognized Private Universities and other Central Universities barring a few notable exceptions. Some of the Universities assert that their reputation has been tarnished irrevocably without any level playing field with that of any of the Central, State or even the State Private Universities that now dot the landscape. They wonder that in the years to come any private capital or enterprise would again dare venture in the arena of higher education in India. It is their case that they have been condemned unheard through an affidavit filed by the Union Of India through the Ministry of HRD before the Hon'ble Supreme Court in a Writ Petition that initially had only sought effective regulation of the Deemed to be Universities that were to be created under Sec 3 UGC Act in W.P. No 142 of 2006. Obviously the babudom in the Ministry of HRD had the better of the Minister Kapil Sibal who was caught unaware as could be made of from his own press statements of this backdoor attempt by the mandarins in power not only to subvert the administrative mechanism in place but also the due process of law and natural justice.
It has been stated in the affidavit to the Supreme Court that the Ministry of HRD has already accepted the findings and recommendations given by a ‘Task Force’ that was earlier referred to as ‘Tandon Committee’ seeking non continuation of various “Deemed to be Universities” and the list forwarded alongwith the affidavit that gives the names of the 44 Universities purportedly found unfit and recommended to be derecognized.
Amusingly, enough it is also understood that the Chairman of this Task Force, Prof. P.N. Tandon, himself is the President of the society of one of the Deemed Universities (under De-Novo category) named National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, Haryana that was recommended to be one of the 38 Universities found to be fit out of the total list of 126 reviewed by him. The fact also remains that one of the members of the said Tandon Committee, Shri Sunil Kumar happened to be one of the handpicked bureaucrats of the then HRD Minister Arjun Singh, who was instrumental in having these Institutions declared as Deemed to be Universities. This indeed makes a mockery of the entire review exercise, notwithstanding the fact that a closer scrutiny reveals that the report of the Tandon Committee appears to have been drafted more on pre-conceived notions and personal prejudice than on facts based on an onsite inspection or on merits as evidenced by a sweeping remark made in the affidavit of Union of India made for all the 44 Universities found to be unfit and the other 44 having been granted further 3 years before their derecognition or otherwise. All canons of judicial propriety appear to have been thrown to the winds as primafacie no natural justice or due process appears to have been followed by the Committee in its proceedings and even subsequently no opportunity or representation appears to have been offered in arriving at the reportedly biased conclusions and assigning any specific reasons for such a recommendation or its acceptance even by the Ministry of HRD.
It also transpires that the UGC, a statutory body, under its Act had earlier appointed an expert committee to visit these institutions and the Deemed to be University status was granted only after a thorough on site inspection, interaction and physical verification of all aspects by the Ministry of Human Resource Development vide its gazette notifications under Section 3 of UGC Act 1956. This apparently means parliamentary sanction subject to compliance of necessary official formalities and procedures and therefore acceptance of the report and recommendations of such derecognition by the Ministry without parliamentary approval may attract breach of privilege as well. Well now the question is as to who are the culprits behind the unilateral and subjective decision, as there appears to be not only a denial and miscarriage of justice but also a grave, deliberate and serious distortion of procedures and physical verifications required to be followed before such a drastic action is resorted to with questionable motives.
Many of these Universities particularly in remote and rural heartland were infact fulfilling the mandate of Government of India working on various projects with different government and non-government bodies that were in any case based on independent inspections. Some of these Universities included the likes of Gurukul Kangri an age old Institution, Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development and many Universities graded much higher than to even some of the IITs and Central Government Universities. It is lamented by these Universities, a few of whom were accredited as ISO 9001-2000 Institutions with academic collaborations and independent academic validations with several reputed foreign Universities, Industries and Institutions. This act has not only brought immense disrepute to our country internationally through media trial and much mudslinging that has indeed hampered the future of the Universities in question besides impacting the excellent academic environment and healthy relations with their student fraternity.
It is left to be seen if the Supreme Court would indeed intervene immediately and to rectify the enormous harm already done by scrapping the said ‘Tandon Committee’ findings and recommendations and appoint a fresh Committee with no conflict of interest and proper representation to look into all aspects to assess performances on well defined and laid down transparent and recognized parameters on a uniform basis for all public and private Universities in national interest.
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