JUDGEMENT
G.P.MATHUR, J. -
(1.)PROFESSOR Yashpal, an eminent Scientist and former Chairman of University Grants Commission, has filed writ petition no. 19 of 2004 under Article 32 of the Constitution by way of public interest litigation for declaring certain provisions of The Chhattisgarh Niji Kshetra Vishwavidyalaya (Sthapana Aur Viniyaman) Adhiniyam, 2002 as ultra vires and for quashing of the notifications issued by State of Chhattisgarh in the purported exercise of power conferred by Section 5 of the said Adhiniyam for establishing various universities.. The other petitioner who has joined in the petition, is a resident of Chhattisgarh and is concerned with the quality of education in his State. The respondent no.1 to the petition is the State of Chhattisgarh, respondent no.2 is the University Grants Commission and respondent nos.3 to 94 are the private universities which have been established by the State of Chhattisgarh under the aforesaid Adhiniyam.
(2.)THE Chhattisgarh Legislature enacted the Chhattisgarh Niji Kshetra Vishwavidyalaya (Sthapana Aur Viniyaman) Adhiniyam, 2002 (for short 'the Act) which was published in the Gazette on 4.2.2002 to establish self-financed private universities for higher education. Under Section 5 of the Act the State has been empowered to incorporate and establish a university by issuing a notification in the Gazette and Section 6 permits such university to affiliate any college or other institution or to set up more than one campus with the prior approval of the State Government. THE main averments in the petition are that after coming into force of the Act, the State Government has been, simply by issuing notifications in the Gazette, establishing universities in an indiscriminate and mechanical manner without having slightest regard to the availability of any infrastructure, teaching facility or their financial resources. In a short span of about one year as many as 112 universities were established and many of them had absolutely no buildings or campus and were running from one room tenements. THEre was absolutely no regulation or supervision over them. THE legislation has been enacted in a manner which has-com-pletely done away with any kind of control of University Grants Commission (for short 'UGC') over these private universities. THE guidelines issued by UGC on the courses being taught and award of academic degrees has been given a complete go-by. THE universities issued brochures for award of all kinds of degrees like "Member of the International Institute of Medical Sciences", "Fellow of the International Institute of Medical Sciences" and many other similar degrees. THE universities are wholly incapable of imparting any education much less a quality education in absence of basic infrastructure like classrooms, libraries, laboratories or campus. Nevertheless by conferment of a legal status of a university, they have been empowered to award degrees. THE private universities are running professional courses without taking prior permission from regulatory bodies such as All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), Medical Council of India (MCI), Dental Council of India (DCI), etc. THE requirement of obtaining prior permission from the regulatory bodies has not been followed and the universities are not under the control of any authority and are at liberty to grant degrees, diplomas and certificates to gullible students. THE State Government has not done any verification or checking of universities after issuance of notification in the Gazette, whether they fulfill any norms laid down by the statutory bodies, which is essential for recognition of the degrees, diplomas and certificates awarded by such universities. In absence of requisite permission from the statutory bodies, the degrees and certificates awarded by such universities would not be recognized by the professional organizations, as a result whereof the students studying in such universities and obtaining the degrees therefrom would suffer immense loss, both in terms of money and also the time spent in completing the courses. It is further averred that the University Grants Commission Act is made nugatory as private universities are offering courses without subscribing to the standards laid down by the UGC and there being no homogeneity of the course content, the degree awarded may not be of any value. THE private universities are offering unheard of courses and degrees which are not part of schedule to the UGC Act, which is in clear violation of Section 22 of the aforesaid Act and the Schedule appended thereto. THE minimum requirement of teaching staff as laid down in the guidelines of UGC had also been given a complete go-by. Young students are being misled in enrolling themselves in courses which do not have any substantive content and the degrees offered by such private universities would affect the standard of education at large which in turn will jeopardize the educational system of the whole country and not that of State of Chhattisgarh alone.
Some photographs have also been filed which show that a signboard mentioning the name of the university is put over small room or shop on first or second floor in some congested market area. That they are functioning from small premises which are sometimes a single small room in a commercial complex or a small tenement on the first or second floor of a building or an ordinary flat or MIG house is evident from their address and a few of them are being reproduced below by way of illustration : Respondent No.3 : Thamath University, Raipur Room No.201, llnd Floor Raipur Commercial Complex Jairam Complex, Raipur. Respondent No. 13 : I.I.L.M. University Mishr Bhawan, 1st Floor Tatyapara, Raipur. Respondent No.36 : Supreme University M.I.G. 6, Sector 3 Shankar Nagar, Raipur. Respondent No.37 : E.M.P.I. University C- 9-12, 1st Floor Ekatam Prishar Rajbandha Maidan, Raipur. Respondent No.42 : Jaipuria University, Raipur 1st Floor, Mishr Bhawan, Raipur. Several such universities are functioning outside the State of Chhattisgarh, and their addresses as given below demonstrate the said fact: Respondent No.7 : N.I.I.L.M. University 11/ 66, Shershah Suri Marg Mohan Co-operative Industrial Estate, New Delhi. Respondent No.9 : Lovely University Lovely Auto Complex Dr. Ambedkar Chowk Jalandhar City. Respondent No.10 : Babu Banarasi Dass University Babu Banarasi Dass Northern Indian Foundation Upper Ground Floor, 338-384, S- Block New Rajinder Nagar, New Delhi. Respondent No.12: Dr. Zakir Hussain National University Unopcharik av Anvrat Shikshan Sansthan Satellite Centre, Bailey Road Patna. Respondent No.45: Bio-Informatics, Bio- Tech, and Life Science University, Raipur Bio-Informatic Institute of India B-5, Sector 3 Noida. Respondent No.46: Institute of Business Administration (N.C.D. Office) Ground Floor E-382, Greater Kailash Part II New Delhi. Respondent No. 53: Adarsh University of Science and Technology, Chhattisgarh, N.I.C.I. Society, 54, Todarmal Road Bengali Market New Delhi.
Writ petition (Civil) No. 565 of 2003 has been filed by Gopal Ji Agarwal with the same prayer, namely, that the Chhattisgarh Niji Kshetra Vishwavidyalaya {Sthapana Aur Viniyaman) Adhiniyam 2002 be declared as ultra vires being violative of Constitution of India, and also contrary to the provisions of University Grants Commission Act, 1956, Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, All India Council for Technical Education Act, 1987 and Bar Council of India Act, 1956. A further prayer has been made that a writ of prohibition may be issued restraining the private universities incorporated under the aforesaid Act from imparting any education and conferring any degrees or diplomas. The averments made in the writ petition are substantially the same as made in the writ petition filed by Prof. Yash Pal, that a large number of universities have been incorporated by merely issuing gazette notifications though they do not have any kind of infrastructure or teaching facility and are functioning from one room tenement in a second or third floor in a residential or commercial building and without any teaching staff. The universities have been established merely to confer degrees and they have on their own created a large number of degrees and diplomas which are totally unheard of. The universities had issued advertisements for opening up study centres in different parts of the country for award of any number of degrees and diplomas. By way of illustration, copies of advertisements issued by some of the universities have been filed. One of such university, namely, the Indian University, issued an advertisement inviting applications for Nodal Service Centres/ University Centres for awarding the following kind of degrees and diplomas:
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The writ petitioner, not knowing the correct facts, responded for opening up a study centre and he was asked to deposit Rs. 50,0007- which he did by two Demand Drafts. On enquiry regarding prior permission from Medical Council of India, the Registrar of the Indian University issued a certificate which reads as under:
" Certified that following PARA MEDICAL COURSES are approved by INDIAN UNIVERSITY, RAIPUR. 1) BPT -2 Year 2) Bachelor of Ophthalmology - 2 Year 3) B M L T - 4 Year 4) PG Diploma in Imaging (MR!) 1 Year It is further certified that for Para Medical Course MCI approval is not required and it is not covered by MCI also."
It is further averred that the Indian University, Raipur also issued an advertisement inviting applications for admission to certain types of technical courses in its alleged campus at Graduate School of Business and Administration, Greater Noida, which is in the district of Gautam Budh Nagar, in the State of UP and it was mentioned therein that the candidates may apply to the Registrar by sending a Bank Draft of Rs. 800/-. A photocopy of the advertisement has been filed. It has thus been submitted that though the private universities have no infrastructure for imparting any kind of education, they were alluring people all over the country to open study centres for which they were charging huge amount and also befooling students to apply for admission to wholly unknown and unheard of technical, medical and other professional courses which are not recognized by any statutory authority, and thereby a substantial amount of money has been collected.
(3.)IN a stereotyped manner Gazette notifications were issued notifying a university and by way of illustration one such notification is being reproduced below :
"Raipur, the 11th October, 2002 No. F. 679//02. IN exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of Section 5 of the Chhattisgarh Niji Kshetra Vishwavidyalaya (Sthapana Aur Viniyaman), Adhiniyam, 2002 (No. 2 of 2002) for extension of Higher/Technical Education in Chhattisgarh, hereby, establishes a university known as "INdian Universityi, Raipur" with effect from the date of publication of this notification in the Chhattisgarh Gazette and the jurisdiction of the University shall extend over whole of Chhattisgarh. 2. The Head Office of the University shall be at Raipur. 3. The State Government, hereby authorizes "INdian University, Raipur" to conduct the syllabus and to grant degree or diplomas for which it shall be recognized or authorized as may be required under any other law for the time being in force."
Several legal issues have also been raised in the writ petitions and the principal being that the manner in which these private universities are functioning would result in creating a complete chaos in the system of higher education in the country and the expert bodies created by the Central Government like, University Grants Commission, Medical Council of India, All India Council for Technical Education etc. for coordination and determination of standards in their own respective fields would not be able to perform their statutory duty and would make their functioning not only difficult but almost impossible.