A division bench of the Madras High Court comprising of Justice R. Subramanian and Justice K. Kumaresh Babu dismissed the writ petitions filed by Annamalai university and other universities like Periyar University and Bharathidasan University challenging the UCC which imposed a condition stating that the territorial jurisdiction with respect to the distance education programs was to be decided by the Distance Education Council (DEC).
Brief Facts:
The DEC held that the territorial jurisdiction of the State Universities will be as per the Acts and Statutes of the universities but will not be beyond the boundaries of the respective states. The universities challenged this condition on the ground that it was not within DEC’s powers under the University Grants Commission Act and the Annamalai University Act 1929, to place a limit on the territorial jurisdiction of the universities. They also contended that placing such a limit would defeat and nullify the main reason behind the distance learning programme.
The UGC countered this by saying that the directions were based on the observations of the Supreme Court in Professor Yash Pal and another v. State of Chhattisgarh in which the Supreme Court came down heavily upon the indiscriminate grant of permission for establishing Universities and offering distance education programmes by the Universities by setting up study centers even outside its area of operation, thereby diluting the quality of education. Taking a queue from the observations of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in Professor Yash Pal's case, the Distance Education Council for the first time attempted to restrict the area of operation of State Universities. However, the challenge was upheld by the writ Court mainly on the ground that the Regulations of the University Grants Commission do not provide for such restriction and the Universities being creatures of the Statute cannot be controlled by the subordinate legislation or resolution of the University Grants Commission.Observations of the Court:
The division bench noted that under Entry 66 of List 1 of Section 7 of the Constitution, the Union had the absolute authority over the coordination and determination of standards in higher education institutes and research and scientific institutes. The University Grants Commission Act 1956 was enacted for this purpose. Thus, the Parliament and the UGC have supremacy over matters relating to the determination of standards in institutions of higher education. The court said that any state legislation which is in conflict with the University Grants Commission Act will be invalid unless it receives the assent of the President.
The decision of the Court:
The writ petitions were dismissed, and the order passed by the UGC was upheld. The court upheld the power of the UGC and at the same time gave relief to the students who were already admitted to the educational institutions, as the following orders of the court were not applicable to them.
Case Title: The University Grants Commission and anr. vs Annamalai University and anr.
Coram: Honorable Mr. Justice R. Subramanian and Honorable Mr. Justice K. Kumaresh Babu
Case No.: W.A.No.606 of 2015
Advocate for the Appellant: Mr. G. Rajagopalan, Senior Counsel, Assisted by Mr. P.R. Gopinathan
Advocate for the Respondent: R1: Mr. Isaac Mohanlal, Senior Counsel, Assisted by Mr. Godson Swaminath; R2: Mr. D. Ravichander, (Special Government Pleader)
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(With input from news agency language)
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