A bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Gyan Sudha Misra dismissed the Human Resource Development Ministry’s  plea for a stay on fresh admissions in these institutions which are likely to commence in July 2010.

“We will hear the universities before taking a decision. It is a matter concerning thousands of students. There are also some medical colleges which are having MBBS courses,’’ said the Bench.

The court has posted August 3 as the next date of hearing. The bench observed that the petitioners have questioned the validity of the very constitution of the high-powered P N Tandon committee.

The court even ignored the pleadings of Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium who wanted conditional admission of students subject to the final outcome of the case pending in the apex court.

“The whole procedure adopted by the government is without jurisdiction and illegal,” contended advocate K K Venugopal appearing for one of the institutes. Venugopal also pointed out to the court that the UGC had originally given the recognition to various institutions as deemed universities for five years and it was to review their performance after that period.

The Tandon committee had recommended de-recognition of the 44 institutes on the ground that they failed to meet the standard required for sustaining the status of a “deemed” university under the provisions laid down by the UGC.