The 250 colleges, affiliated to the Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU), were barred admissions of the First Year students after finding not a single regular teacher in the colleges.
The High Court hammer adequately pointed out that the 250 colleges would go without the First Year admissions for the academic year 2013-14. The High Court order further said that the tainted 250 colleges should appoint qualified teachers in accordance with the Supreme Court and UGC directives. The hearing on the petition was done before the Double Bench of Justice Prasanna Varale and Justice Atul Chandurkar.
Nagpur News: The Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court has ruled today that the ban on admissions to First Year in the black listed 250 colleges would continue and has ordered the colleges to appoint regular teachers within a month.
The 250 colleges, affiliated to the Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU), were barred admissions of the First Year students after finding not a single regular teacher in the colleges.
The High Court hammer adequately pointed out that the 250 colleges would go without the First Year admissions for the academic year 2013-14. The High Court order further said that the tainted 250 colleges should appoint qualified teachers in accordance with the Supreme Court and UGC directives. The hearing on the petition was done before the Double Bench of Justice Prasanna Varale and Justice Atul Chandurkar.
The 250 colleges were found with no regular teachers and subsequently Sunil Mishra had filed a petition in the High Court in this connection. The filing of the petition by Mishra forced the RTMNU to go on barring the First Year admissions in these colleges for the academic year 2013-14. The RTMNU then uploaded the names of the black listed colleges on its website for information to the students and parents. In the meantime, the Maharashtra Government’s Department of Higher and Technology Education had filed an affidavit informing the High Court that the appointments of contract teachers in these colleges were illegal and void. The affidavit further elaborated that there is no provision in the law to appoint contract teachers as the Maharashtra Government had scrapped the provision in 2008 itself. Therefore the appointments contract teachers were illegal and had stressed the appointments in accordance with the UGC directives only, the affidavit of State Government said.
Adv Bhanudas Kulkarni represented Amar Seva Mandal while Chief Government Pleader Adv Nitin Sambre represented the Maharashtra Government.
VIDVAT PARISHAD AND MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE MEETINGS:
The meetings of Vidvat Parishad and Management Committee were held to find out a middle path to the the problem. The Vidvat Parishad and the Management Committee, showing soft corner and favouring the colleges, had suggested appointments of contract teachers in accordance with the RTMNU’s 2009 rules and regulations until the regular teachers were appointed. Both the Vidvat Parishad and Management Committee had left the decision of derecognition of these colleges with the Maharashtra Government. The Maharashtra Government had pointed out the affidavits of 2010 and 2011 and had said that about 57,000 “NET-SET” passed teachers are available for appointments in these colleges. Therefore, the colleges should appoint qualified and regular teachers in accordance with the UGC directives only, the Government said.
RTMNU’s decision to drop 51 colleges from black list boomeranged as HC raised the hammer:
It may be recalled, the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court had raised its highly powerful hammer before hitting hard to Rashtrasant Tukdoji Maharaj Nagpur University (RTMNU). The High Court had posed a pointed question over reasons for dropping the 51 colleges from the list of 338 blacklisted colleges.
The RTMNU had blacklisted and barred admissions to 338 colleges for not having regular teachers. The RTMNU published the list of blacklisted colleges by uploading it on NU’s website. However, the RTMNU amended the list by dropping the names 71 colleges affiliated to Gondwana University and 51 professional courses colleges affiliated to RTMNU. The High Court posed: Why dropping of 51 colleges from the list?
Sunil Mishra had filed a petition in the High Court charging the RTMNU of connivance with the colleges having no regular teachers. After the petition was filed, the RTMNU initially barred admissions to 338 colleges. The RTMNU after some days amended the list and a fresh list of 250 colleges was provided to the High Court. The Vidvat Parishad and Management Council of RTMNU advocated appointments of ad hoc teachers if the colleges are not getting qualified regular teachers. However, there is no provision in the Maharashtra Universities Act of appointing ad hoc teachers. Moreover, the State Government bluntly refused to accept RTMNU’s policy decision on appointment of ad hoc teachers.
The High Court’s attention was drawn towards the dropping of engineering and other professional courses colleges having no regular teachers. The High Court then questioned the RTMNU why the 51 colleges were dropped from the list of blacklisted colleges and which are the colleges (names of colleges). Adv Rohit Deo informed the Court that the 51 colleges told the RTMNU of completing shortcomings and other formalities. The High Court then again posed a pointed query: The shortcomings were there while barring the admissions to the colleges then how suddenly the shortcomings were completed that warranted dropping of the 51 colleges from the list?
