Centre okays bill on educational tribunals

National set-up to deal with all issues concerning higher education

A meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave its nod to the Educational Tribunals Bill, 2010, which seeks to set up a two-tier judicial structure—at national and state levels—for speedy resolution of education-related disputes.
The state tribunals will adjudicate matters concerning teachers, employees and students of institutions in the respective states.

The national tribunal will deal with all matters concerning regulatory bodies in higher education and also matters involving institutes located in two or more states.
The bill also provides for imprisonment up to three years or fine of Rs 10 lakh or with both to those who fails to comply with the orders of the state or the national educational tribunals.
The bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha earlier, was referred to the parliamentary standing committee concerned for its scrutiny. The cabinet took up this bill in the context of the observations of that committee.

The committee related to the HRD Ministry had observed that consultations had not been undertaken with the states and private educational institutions on the bill, which was tabled in the Lok Sabha during the budget session of Parliament.
“The committee is of view that education being a concurrent subject, the proposal for setting up state education tribunals needed a wider consultation process involving all the state and union territory governments,” the report said.
However, the committee noted that with the phenomenal growth of higher education, specifically in the private sector, such dedicated tribunals for resolving disputes were necessary.

The passage of this bill was important to take up other educational reforms bills like the Prohibition of Unfair Practices in Technical, Medical Educational Institutions and Universities Bill, 2010 and the National Accreditation Authority Bill.
DH News Service