HRD ministry sets up three-member panel to suggest regulatory mechanism for deemed universities

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar. (Express photo)

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry on Monday set up a three-member committee to examine the working of deemed universities and suggest an “oversight” and “regulatory mechanism” for the same within four months.

The panel — headed by former Chief Justice of Patna High Court L Narasimhan Reddy — has been constituted at the behest of the Supreme Court. The apex court, on November 3, had quashed correspondence engineering courses offered since 2001 by four deemed universities — JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth, Institute of Advanced Studies in Education in Rajasthan, Allahabad Agricultural Institute and Vinayaka Mission Research Foundation, Tamil Nadu.

In the above order, the SC berated the University Grants Commission for failing to regulate the deemed universities and asked the government to set up a panel comprising “eminent members who have held high positions in the field of education, investigation, administration or law at national level” within a month to examine issues related to distance education, deemed universities and suggest a regulatory mechanism for them.

AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabuddhe and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, additional secretary at HRD Ministry are the other two members of the committee.

The panel has been asked to submit its suggestions in four months, following which the court has directed the ministry to take action based on the report within a month of its submission. The government will file an affidavit in SC informing of the action taken on or before August 31 next year.