Nagpur: The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court has directed the Vikramshila Polytechnic, run by a charitable trust, to deposit the required academic fee within seven days for the approval of the upcoming academic session. This comes as an interim relief following a plea by teachers who earlier approached the court over non-payment of regular salaries.
While the salary issue was previously resolved through court intervention, the management’s failure to pay the necessary fee for academic session approval has raised concerns over the institution’s future, prompting teachers to once again seek judicial intervention.
After a hearing, the High Court ordered the trust and college management to complete the fee payment and extension process within seven days. The AICTE was instructed to accept the fee if paid within this timeframe and to process further formalities accordingly. The court also clarified that any shortcomings found in the application should be immediately rectified by the management, and this order would not impact the trust’s right to proceed with the closure proposal in the future.
Background Highlights:
The petitioners’ lawyer pointed to a July 22, 2024 order in which the court had similarly directed the trust to apply for continuation of the institute’s operations. Based on that, AICTE had issued a renewal order on July 25, 2024. The management now argues that since it has applied for permission to shut down the college, the previous order no longer applies.
The lawyer for the petitioners also informed the court that the Maharashtra State Technical Education Board (MSTEB) has denied issuing a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for closure. A document downloaded from the official AICTE website was presented in court, showing that the trust had applied for closure under the AICTE Approval Process 2025–26, but the matter was marked as “case closed” with no decision taken.
The institution’s counsel mentioned that a new committee has now been formed to examine the closure proposal.