KSOU mulls filing contempt petition against UGC

BENGALURU: The Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) Mysore is likely to file contempt of court case against the University Grants Commission (UGC) for not obeying the direction over granting renewal of affiliation.

Even after six days of the High Court-set deadline to renew the affiliation of KSOU for 2017-18 passing, the UGC has not communicated anything to the university. Following this delay by the UGC despite the HC orders, the KSOU officials are now mulling a contempt plea against the UGC.According to sources in the KSOU, this will be the main topic of discussion for the Board of Management meeting (BOM) scheduled to be held on January 10.

“The meeting was scheduled to be held on Wednesday (January 3), but as we all decided to approach the UGC one last time to get our affiliation, we postponed the meeting,” said an official source from the KSOU.

As a last try, vice-chancellor of KSOU, Prof Shivalingaiah is in Delhi to meet the newly appointed UGC chairman Prof DP Singh, and according to the information available with The New Indian Express, the appointment is fixed in for Wednesday afternoon. “Once the VC is back, we will sit and discuss. If we get a positive response (from the UGC) then it is okay, or else we will be forced to move contempt,” said the official.

On December 12, 2017, High Court of Karnataka issued an order directing UGC to give recognition to KSOU for 2017-18 academic year within two weeks of the order. And the deadline ended on December 27, 2017. But, till date, KSOU has not received any communication. While passing the judgment, the court had observed that KSOU cannot be at the receiving end for lapses on the part of the UGC and that it (the UGC) must be very fair while dealing with higher education in the country. Its orders should be consistent.
Despite submitting 30,000-page documents and reports to the UGC and also explaining the plight of students, the UGC did not consider giving recognition to KSOU.

Several requests for affiliation renewal in vain

KSOU did not admit students for 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 academic years as UGC had not granted renewal of affiliation. For 2017-18 academic year, the admissions were supposed to be completed by June.
Despite several meetings with the authorities concerned of the UGC by university authorities, there was no positive reply from the UGC yet. Even Chief Minister had requested the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to interfere in the matter considering students belonging to weaker sections who depend on distance education courses offered by KSOU, but in vain.