Deemed Universities Status in light of the recent judgment of the Supreme Court.

The hope of the students was with the Supreme Court at the outset of 2014. But unfortunately, the judgment of Supreme Court was not of much satisfaction to them. It was also a ray of hope for 44 universities that were derecognised by the Tandon Committee in its report of 2009. 

Timeline of Events.

• June 2009. University Grants Commission (UGC) was appointed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to review the standards of the deemed universities, for which it has been empowered under the UGC Act of 1956. It submitted its report in the same year in the month of November.
• July 2009. The MHRD appointed P. N. Tandon Committee to review the functioning of the universities of India, including deemed universities. The committee reviewed the status of 126 deemed universities and classified them into three categories:
  1. Group A for the universities fit to qualify as deemed universities. Only 38 universities were found to be covered under it; 
  2. Group B for those universities which were found deficient in some parameters that needed to be rectified. 44 universities fall under it; and 
  3. Group C for universities that were found totally unfit to be deemed universities. It had 44 universities under it.

• 2010. Adopting the recommendations of the Tandon Committee, the MHRD targeted the Group C universities and derecognized these universities, meaning thereby that these universities are incompetent to award degrees. The constitution of this committee was challenged in the case of Viplav Sharma Vs Union of India & Ors[1][2]. 
• 2011. Under the direction of the Supreme Court, the MHRD appointed Thakur Committee to review the status of the 44 Group C universities. This committee pointed out flaws in the scoring pattern of Tandon Committee. 
• January, 2014. The Supreme Court asked the University Grants Commission to examine all those reports which are associated to 44 deemed Universities who currently have an unrecognized tag on them. It includes the reports of Tandon Committee and Thakur Committee.

Criticism of the Judgment. 

Though, the SC give the liberty to the Universities to raise objections if any, against the reports, it cleared that the report of the UGC is not binding on the Centre however, due weight will be given as UGC is an expert statutory authority. Thus, this judgment surpasses the authority of UGC and degrades it to a mere advisory body.

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[1] [WP (C) 142 of 2006]

[2] The report was also criticised because the Tandon Committee, which was in wake of a media sting operation exposing the admission malpractice in two deemed universities in Tamil Nadu (now being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation) awarded the ‘B’ grade for admission procedure to such universities.