New Delhi, May 6
The 44 deemed universities, which are sought to be derecognised by the government, could go ahead with the admission process for the 2010-11 academic year with their deemed status in tact.

The Supreme Court today rejected the government’s plea for restraining these universities from taking students for engineering and other courses during the coming academic season.

A Bench comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Gyan Sudha Misra did not accept the request of the Human Resource Development Ministry, stating that it was not in a position to pass any injunction order as the affected universities had questioned the validity of the Prof PN Tandon committee set up by the ministry.

According to the universities, they got the deemed status on the recommendation of the University Grants Commission and as such only the UGC had the power to strip them of the status. The government wants to derecognise these universities on the basis of the recommendations of the committee and a task force of the ministry for their failure to maintain the required educational standard.

The Bench pointed out that the affected universities had also questioned the government’s wisdom in appointing the committee headed by Tandon who himself was heading the governing body of one such university, the National Brain Research Centre (NBRC) at Manesar, Haryana. The apex court had restrained the Centre on January 25 from derecognising the 44 deemed universities and clarified on March 8 that the restraint order would continue to be in force.

With the next hearing slated for August 3, the deemed universities would be free to take students for the coming season for which the admission process would start by end of June or early July.