The Telangana High Court had passed interim directions setting aside the regulations of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University Hyderabad (JNTU-H) that private engineering colleges should take permission from State government to start new courses or increase intake of students in courses.
A Bench of Justices A. Rajasheker Reddy and T. Vinod Kumar of the HC issued the directions after hearing a batch of writ petitions challenging JNTU-H’s regulation no. 345556 filed by groups of 11 engineering colleges.
The Bench also instructed JNTU-H to grant affiliation to the colleges which filed writ petitions.
The JNTU-H’s regulations mandated that an engineering college, new or existing one, should secure a No Objection Certificate or permission from the State government to start a new programme. JNTU-H standing counsel V. Ramchander Goud argued that Section 20 of Telangana Education Act-1982 empowered State government to permit establishment of educational institutions.
This included the power to accord permission to start new courses in an institution, he contended. He said that the State government was the competent authority to prepare a ‘perspective plan’ every three to four years by conducting survey for identification of locality-wise educational needs. The plan envisages guidelines to check mushrooming of sub-standard technical educational institutions, he said.
Senior counsel S. Niranjan Reddy, appearing for the petitioners, contended that it was for the All India Council for Technical Education to take a call on commencement of new colleges or programmes in colleges in all parts of the country. State government had no role to play in the matter, he told the court. Citing the case of JNTU-H vs Sangam Laxmi Bai Vidyapeeth and others, the JNTU-H counsel said the Supreme Court upheld similar regulations of the university. It also upheld the power of State government to issue a NOC or permission to start a new college.
Published - October 08, 2021 12:26 am IST
