The government might be getting ready to have its higher education reform bills cleared in the winter session of parliament, but private universities have strongly opposed the ministry of human resource development’s (MHRD) endeavour.
A group of private universities — Indian Council of Universities (ICU) — met the chairman of parliamentary standing committee on HRD, Oscar Fernandes, and expressed their apprehension that the central government was overstepping on state government’s rights.
It said that the government’s reform bills — The Educational Tribunals Bill, 2010; The Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical Educational Institutions, Medical Educational Institution and Universities Bill, 2010; The National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill, 2010; The Foreign Educational Institutions (regulation of entry and operations) Bill, 2010 and Higher Education and Research Bill, 2010 — were not constitutionally valid.
Therefore, all the new bills needed to be referred to the solicitor general or a committee headed by a Supreme Court judge to check the validity of these laws in view of constitutional provisions distributing the legislative powers related to higher education among states and union government.
The ICU had representations of chancellors/ vice-chancellors representing mainly private and deemed universities.
The council objected that the constitution categorically prohibits parliament from regulating higher education while empowering states to do so.
“Parliament can only coordinate and determine the standards of higher education but cannot regulate it. Parliament is even not permitted to incorporate and wind up universities,” ICU chairman Surjit Singh Pabla said.
Fernandes is learnt to have told the organisation to make their point before the standing committee when it examines these bills.
