AICTE to crack down on institutes offering technical education without approval

The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is gearing up for a crackdown on the institutes offering technical programmes without its approval in different parts of the country. It has decided to collect information about such institutes from the general public and take “appropriate legal action” against them.

As the Council's regulations revised in 2016, such institutes are liable to face "punitive and criminal action" for violation of the AICTE Act. "Let people inform us about such institutions. We will conduct an inquiry and take legal action against them. We have issued a public notice inviting people to come forward and inform us about institutions offering technical programmes without obtaining any approval from the Council," an AICTE official told DH.

To offer technical education in the country, the institutions need to have the mandatory prior approval of the AICTE in accordance with the section 10 and 11 of the AICTE Act, 1987 and Regulation 2016, the official added.

The move comes as a large number of institutions continue to offer technical programmes without any approval from the AICTE despite several requests were made to the States to put a check on such institutes in the best interest of students.

“We have requested the State Governments and the Universities operating in different parts of the country to ensure that the institutes seeking a grant of affiliation from them have obtained a prior approval of the AICTE to offer technical programmes,” the official said.

Any Institute not having prior approval from the AICTE and offering degree, diploma or certificate programmes in technical education are liable “to punitive legal/criminal action” in accordance with para 9 and 10 of the AICTE regulations, 2016 as notified in the Gazette of India on November 30 last year, the official added.