Don’t imperil students’ future: SC to AICTE

R Sedhuraman

Advertisement

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, May 31

The Supreme Court today warned the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for reportedly jeopardising the prospects of lakhs of engineering students by failing to meet the deadline for granting annual approval to engineering colleges.

“You can’t flout the schedule set by us for granting approval” to the colleges, a vacation Bench comprising Justices Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Amitava Roy told the AICTE and directed it to file an affidavit within a week on its alleged lapses in respect of 612 engineering colleges in Uttar Pradesh.

The Bench was hearing a plea by the UP Technical University, now known as APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University, for extending the deadline for granting affiliation to the 612 colleges from May 15 to June 10.

The extension was necessary as the AICTE had sent the list of approved colleges only on May 7, which was 27 days after the deadline ended on April 10, university counsel Amitesh Kumar pleaded.

The university could grant affiliation only after physically verifying the infrastructure and faculty of each college for which time was required, he contended.

Granting the extension, the Bench clarified that it was relaxing the norm in view of the peculiar circumstances and as such should not be treated as a precedent by others for similar relief.

The Bench noted that the apex court had delivered a judgment on December 13, 2012, setting the calendar for grant of approvals by AICTE and affiliation and counselling for admissions by universities. “Don’t tinker with our verdict. We are not sitting here for nothing,” the Bench told AICTE.