Varsities can fix additional rules for colleges seeking affiliation, rules SC

The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that universities are not bound only by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) norms and that they can specify additional conditions for colleges seeking their affiliation. It said the AICTE rules are only advisory in nature and a guiding factor.

“While universities cannot dilute the standards prescribed by AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education), they certainly have the power to stipulate enhanced norms and standards,” held a bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde.

The top court also pulled up the AICTE for opposing the idea of universities prescribing improved standards for the colleges but lacking any regulation as to how the students will get compensated when colleges get approvals on the basis of false information to the regulator.

“Though AICTE has reserved to itself the power to conduct inspections and take penal action against colleges for false declarations, such penal action does not mean anything and does not serve any purpose for the students who get admitted to colleges, which have necessary infrastructure only on paper and not on site,” it said.

Authoring the verdict on behalf of the bench, justice V Ramasubramanian added: “Ultimately, it is the universities which are obliged to issue degrees and whose reputation is inextricably intertwined with the fate and performance of the students, that may have to face the music and hence their role cannot be belittled.”

The judgment settled the law on the issues surrounding authority of universities with respect to the AICTE, after underscoring that even a body of Supreme Court judgments, starting from 1997, have failed in reflecting the correct position of law.

The bench maintained that “a careful scanning of the provisions of the AICTE Act and the provisions of the UGC Act in juxtaposition will show that the role of the AICTE vis-a-vis the universities is only advisory, recommendatory and a guiding factor”.

While it is not open to the universities to dilute the norms and standards prescribed by AICTE, the bench held, it is always open to the universities to prescribe enhanced norms, such as pass percentage of outgoing students or employment potential of the proposed course for which the affiliation is being sought.

The ruling came while the bench allowed an appeal by APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, a state university of Kerala government. The university was aggrieved by a Kerala high court order, which had said that it could not go beyond what was prescribed by the AICTE as necessary conditions for granting affiliation.

The high court had also set aside the university’s resolution that permission for starting new courses in engineering shall be given to any college only after assessing additional conditions of employment potential, industry demand, pass percentage of graduating students, average intake of new students and requirement of at least one course having recognition by the National Board of Accreditation (NBA).

The apex court said that the syndicate of the university, which included the vice chancellor, was well within the law to pass the impugned resolution.

“Unfortunately”, the bench said, the AICTE opposed the university in this case which was only making sure that colleges that demand affiliation for creating additional courses should have a pass percentage of at least 50% for the outgoing students and an average intake of more than 50% of the sanctioned intake in the preceding three years.

It underlined that the AICTE grants approval or extension to the institutions by an online method, without any physical verification of the infrastructural facilities as has been self-disclosed by them.

“Today, even the universities are being ranked according to the quality of standards maintained by them. No state-run university can afford to have a laid­back attitude today, when their own performance is being measured by international standards. Therefore, the power of the universities to prescribe enhanced norms and standards cannot be doubted,” the bench ruled.