The Bombay high court on Wednesday directed the state government to file an affidavit by November 30 regarding action taken against a Pune-based ‘bogus’ university, Dnyaneshwar Vidyapeeth, which was allegedly headed by former chief minister and Lok Sabha speaker Manohar Joshi.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Shiavax Vajifdar gave the directive while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) by social activist Dinesh Kamat. The petitioner alleged Joshi was the chancellor of Dnynaneshwar Vidyapeeth, which had been functioning for the last 25 years without the UGC’s approval. Neither did it have the approval or the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), he said.
The petition pointed out that in response to an earlier petition, the Directorate of Technical Education had held a meeting with officials of Dnyaneshwar Vidyapeeth on June 7 and directed them to drop the term Vidyapeeth, get their courses recognised independently, abolish post of chancellor as only the Governor of a state can occupy the post and stop conferring engineering degree to students. The petitioner had withdrawn the earlier PIL but moved the high court again alleging that though the government had accepted the allegations against the ‘bogus’ university, it had not taken any action .
Set up in 1980, the Vidyapeeth runs 33 franchises across Maharashtra and Karnataka and offers diploma and degree courses in engineering. Nearly 5,000 students enrol every year paying an annual fees ranging from Rs 22,000 to Rs 25,000.
