Centre allays pvt colleges’ fears over education bills
The Centre on Wednesday dismissed private universities’ claims that three education related bills are unconstitutional, as “factually incorrect.”
The three Bills—Educational Tribunals Bill, the Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical Educational Institutions, Medical Educational Institutions and Universities Bill and the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for Higher Educational Institutions Bill—have been formulated under Entry 66 of the union list and not under Entry 25 of the concurrent list of the Constitution.
“Therefore, even if we accept the contention that Parliament has no right to incorporate universities, it does not alter the legitimacy of these three Bills which derive their authority from Entry 66,” Joint Secretary to the Human Resource Development Ministry R P Sisodia said here.
He was reacting to a recent media report which, quoting the Association of Self-Financing Universities, claimed that the three proposed Bills of the HRD Ministry pertaining to higher education were unconstitutional as Parliament did not have the legislative competence to enact them.
The Association also appealed to the Centre to put on hold these three proposed legislation and hold talks with higher education institutions and other stakeholders.
The Educational Tribunal Bill, the ministry said, was essential as educational disputes need a fast track and affordable adjudication mechanism as the present judicial system was fraught with delays.
“The Bill seeks to establish tribunals providing for independent, enforceable, fast track adjudication of disputes in quasi-judicial manner,” it said.
