The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday sought a reply from the state education department after a public interest litigation questioning the non-appointment of ombudsman to take care of grievances of students in the state-run universities came up for hearing. The division bench of Acting Chief Justice AS Dave and Justice Biren Vaishnav issued notice to the government directing it to file its reply in the matter by March 1.
The petition filed by Sandip Munjyasara provides that the University Grant Commission (Grievance Redressal) Regulation, 2012, provides that a search committee needs to be formed. The search committee is supposed to provide a panel of three names out of which the ombudsman is appointed in the varsities. It is the case of Sandip, who appeared as party-in-person, that six-years have passed since the notification of the UGC regulations for grievance redressal, but the state the state has not formed any search committee and no ombudsman has been appointed in any higher education institute in the state.
Sandip contended before court that an ombudsman plays a vital role in the education system as he has the powers to hear and decide any grievance of a student against the institution or any applicant seeking admission as a student in the institution. He submitted that the grievance can be related to non-publication of prospectus; irregularity in admission process; withhold or refuse to return student's documents; demand of fees in excess of what has been approved by the competent authority; complaints of discrimination of students; delay in conducting examinations and declaring results; denial of quality education; and lack of student amenities.
The petitioner contended that the non-appointment of ombudsman and the non-formulation of the search committee for the purpose, has frustrated the motive behind the issuance of the grievance redressal guidelines of the UGC. Meanwhile, the counsel for the state government contended that it is not true that none of the state universities have ombudsman. However, the court directed the state to file an affidavit in this regard clarifying in how many higher education institutions, an ombudsman has been appointed.