MUMBAI, July 17: The Bombay High Court has affirmed the decision of the University of Mumbai to curtail the intake capacity of Smt Indira Gandhi College of Engineering, Koparkhairane (New Bombay) and Rajaram Shinde College of Engineering, Pedhambe (Ratnagiri).The two colleges were inspected by a five-member committee of the university in January this year to gauge if their infrastructure and facilities were in consonance with the norms laid down by the All India Council of Technical Education. The inspection revealed grave deficiences in both the colleges. The committee recommended that students should not be admitted to these colleges.
As a result, the Academic Council of the university also resolved in favour of the ban on admissions. Accordingly, the director of Technical Education issued instructions in respect of the two colleges. In the case of Rajaram Shinde college, admissions were closed for all the three faculties: Electrical, Electronics and Mechanical.
And in respect of Indira GandhiCollege, admissions were banned to the Computer Engineering faculty, and in case of other faculties (like Electrical, Electronics, Telecommunication and Instrumentation Engineering) the intake capacity has been reduced from 60 to 30 seats each.
The colleges challenged the ban in the BHC by filing two petitions. The division bench of Justice Ashok Agarwal and Ranjana P Desai admitted the petition. The petitioners contended that not the university, but the All India Council of Technical Education, had the power to decide the quality of infrastructure of a college. Therefore, a university commitee cannot decide the fate of their colleges.
However, the AICTE counsel M V Bhat argued that the council itself had found grave deficiencies in the colleges during the last inspection. The warnings to rectify the systemic errors were disregarded by the college.AICTE counsel said the colleges will be inspected soon to decide on their approval in 1998-99. And the next meeting of AICTE will decide the fate of thecolleges. It will also give due weightage to the views of the state government and the university.
The court thereafter ruled that since AICTE has also not yet approved of the colleges, the university decision to ban admissions in these two colleges stands valid. No interim relief was granted to the colleges.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
