ST. TERESAS COLLEGE Vs. MAHATMA GANDHI UNIVERSITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) St.Teresa's College, Ernakulam, which is an autonomous institution under the provisions of the Mahatma Gandhi University Act (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act' for short), impugns Exts.P7, P8 and P9 orders issued by the said University, through which, the unaided M.Phil. Programme being run by them has been ordered to be stopped with effect from 2019-2020.

(2.) The petitioner asserts that the reasons stated in the impugned orders are untenable and that the University obtains no jurisdiction to have imposed a complete ban on their activities, which can only be construed to be a blatant violation of the "University Grants Commission (Conferment of Autonomous Status upon Colleges and Measures for Maintenance of Standards in Autonomous Colleges) Regulations, 2018" (hereinafter referred to as the 'UGC Regulations' for short), which sanctions full autonomy to the institutions like them to begin and run any course, subject to the provisions thereunder. They thus pray that impugned orders be set aside, pointing out that, through the earlier interim orders of this Court, same has remained stayed until now.

(3.) Sri.Surin George Ipe - learned Standing Counsel for the Mahatma Gandhi University ("M.G.University" for short), answered the afore submissions of the petitioner, as made by their learned counsel - Sri.Issac Kuruvilla Illikal, saying that impugned orders were issued because a legitimate suspicion arose that the petitioner and certain other institutions similarly placed, were conducting their M.Phil. Course in the self financing stream without having any regular teacher, but with the aid of external Research Supervisors and retired academic persons. He submitted that this is contrary to the specific mandate of the University Grants Commission (UGC), as available from its notification dtd. 05/05/2016 - which is called the 'University Grants Commission (Minimum Standards and Procedure for Award of M.Phil./Ph.D. Degrees) Regulations, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as the 'UGC M.Phil. Regulations, 2016' for short). He submitted that, therefore, when the petitioner does not have regular faculty, they cannot be allowed to run any M.Phil. Course in the self financing stream; and thus prayed that this writ petition be dismissed.