Education is like illegal construction, says Supreme Court

A bench of Justices G S Singhvi and C K Prasad said, “All of us agree that education has become a commerce, nay something more than commerce.”

The court pulled up the Central Council of Indian Medicine for granting approval to many Ayurvedic colleges in Maharashtra in the year 2010-2011 even though the same colleges were not given recognition for academic years 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 due to lack of infrastructure and faculty.

The Council, an independent body, had earlier refused approval to these colleges on the ground that they failed to fulfill the required standards prescribed by government.
The colleges had reportedly filed false affidavits with the Council claiming to have fulfilled all requisite standards.

“You say that they have filed false affidavits. When you know that they have filed false affidavits, why did you grant them approval?’’ the bench told the counsel appearing for the Council. The bench passed the observation while hearing a petition on granting approval to some Ayurvedic colleges in Maharashtra.

The government was granting approval to the colleges without even examining whether these institutes possessed the required infrastructure.

“In Maharashtra, for instance, out of 465 colleges, 95 per cent of them lack basic infrastructural facilities,” the bench said while referring the issue to a regular bench headed by Justice R V Raveendran.

In many states more than 50 percent of the engineering and medical colleges did not have infrastructure and faculty, the court said.

It cited the case of Haryana and many other states which had allowed to open technical institutes and allowed them to admit students without having basic laboratories and teachers, the court added.

“In this country, all types of irregularities are regularised, murder convicts are pardoned, irregular appointments are made regular and illegal construction regularised,” Justice Singhvi observed while speaking for the bench.

Some private Ayurvedic colleges from Maharashtra had sought approval of their admission process which was denied by the Council.