SC slams technical council for flouting deadline

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, May 31

The Supreme Court on Tuesday slammed the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for flouting its deadline for approval to engineering colleges, thereby jeopardising the prospects of millions of students.

A vacation Bench comprising Justices PC Ghose and Amitava Roy directed the AICTE to file an affidavit within a week explaining the delay in communicating its approval to 612 engineering colleges in Uttar Pradesh to the APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University in the state.
The council would be slapped with fine and hefty damages if its affidavit showed its lapses in following the SC calendar set in the December 13, 2012 judgment.

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The council was supposed to have given the list of colleges granted permission in UP to the technical university by April 10, which was done only on May 7.

Appearing for the university, advocate Amitesh Kumar said his client was not in a position to follow the SC calendar because of the AICTE lapse.

At this, the SC extended the deadline for the university from May 15 to June 10 for granting affiliation to the colleges.

The Bench, however, clarified that this exemption would not be treated as a precedent.