Post News Network
New Delhi, Sept 2: A Supreme Court judgment last week which accepted the assessment of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) and criticised the manner in which the Tandon committee recommended de-recognition of some deemed universities has come as a relief to two such bodies in the state.
The apex court gave its verdict August 26 on a public interest litigation (PIL) which was filed almost a decade ago. The ruling is a shot in the arm for universities which were facing de-recognition following the Tandon committee report.
The PIL filed by one Viplav Sharma had alleged that several deemed universities with little professional excellence were functioning in the country.
The Tandon committee allegedly did not physically inspect the institutions. It classified the deemed varsities into three categories- A (qualified for the status of deemed university), B (Have some lacuna and given three years to work on it for being qualified for deemed university) and C (unfit for qualification as deemed university) based on only board-room presentations.
The committee recommended de-recognition of C category institutes.
The report put Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) into the B category while the Siksha-O-Anushandhan (SOA) University from Orissa was in the C category.
While B category institutes did not face the de-recognition threat but certain conditions were put in terms of their expansion.
But the court accepted the NAAC report which carried out a physical inspection before ranking the deemed universities.
According to the latest rankings, both KIIT University and SOA University from Orissa have received A category status.
Education experts hailed the apex court order. “This proves that the ‘drawing room’ method of out-sourced assessment by Tandon Committee was completely flawed. Eventually, the law of the country prevailed and institutions have been given justice after a struggle of 10 years,” advocate Ravi Bharadwaj, a legal expert on education matters said.
