Speaking to TOI on Friday, SC lawyer Shivaji M Jadhav, who is appearing for some of these petitioners, said the outcome of the impending hearing is expected to clear the air vis-a-vis the course of action to be adopted by the universities in relation to the colleges/ institutions, which have effected admissions to the first-year degree courses in 2010-11 without making the key appointments and without securing any relief from the courts.
It may be noted that the University of Pune (UoP) has taken a firm stance that it won't approve 2010-11 admissions at such colleges/institutions as the university is bound by the court's directives. This has further put a question mark over the future of several students at these academic institutions.
According to the list posted by the UoP on its website on October 11, 2010, there are 88 colleges and 43 institutions in the university area of Pune, Nashik and Ahmednagar districts, which have continued to operate without full-time heads. These academic institutions have also not secured any kind of relief from the courts.
Of these, Pune district accounts for 55 colleges and 28 institutions, followed by Nashik (31 colleges/11 institutions) and Ahmednagar (12 colleges/4 institutions).
Apart from these, a large number of colleges/institutions have secured relief from the Bombay high court while citing the SC orders in a couple of pending matters relating to SLPs 13944 and 13868, both filed in 2009.
The entire matter arises from the December 3, 2008 judgement by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay high court, which gave a time-bound programme for the state universities to ensure that all government-run, aided and private unaided colleges and recognised institutions have full-time principals/ directors in place by May 31, 2009.
The high court then directed the universities not to allow admissions to the first-year degree courses for academic year (AY) 2009-10 at those colleges/institutions, which fail to make the key appointments by May 31, 2009 deadline.
In the ensuing developments, several academic organisations (educational societies and trusts) from places like Pune, Nashik and Mumbai, among others, moved the apex court by filing SLPs seeking a stay on the high court ruling.
On May 28, 2009, the apex court vacation bench of Justices Markandey Katju and Deepak Verma passed an interim order staying the impugned judgement of the high court. The bench was hearing the SLPs (No 13868 and others) moved by the Yogavashisth Shikshan Prasarak Mandal; K J Somaiya Institute of Engineering and Information Technology; and the Vidya Pratishthan and others.
Meanwhile, an apex court bench of chief justice K G Balakrishnan and justice P Sathasivam, while hearing another bunch of petitions (SLP No 13944 of 2009) by colleges/institutions from the state, passed an order on July 17, 2009, allowing the 2009-10 admissions and the process of appointment of principals/directors to go on simultaneously.
According to lawyers appearing for the petitioners, the SC interim order covered only those academic organisations, which moved the court to seek relief and was not applicable on to all colleges/institutions in the state. Subsequently, various academic organisations started approaching the court for relief.
The Maharashtra government issued a government resolution (GR) on January 31, 2010 asking the colleges/institutions to make the key appointments by the revised deadline of May 31, 2010, as sought by the SC.
After the revised deadline got over, the universities started issuing letters in June, 2010, banning admission of students for AY 2010-11 at those colleges/institutions, which failed to appoint full-time principals/ directors. This set off a fresh round of petitions by at least 18 academic organisations before the SC. All these petitions were clubbed together and came up for hearing before the vacation bench of Justices R M Lodha and A K Patnaik on June 28, 2010.
The bench then passed an order granting six months time to the petitioner organisations to make the key appointments the breather ends in December, 2010. These petitions were also tagged with SLP No 13868 by K J Somaiya Institute and others, for next hearing, which the bench sought in the first week of November. The same is now listed for November 8.
In the other matter (SLP 13944), the SC bench of Justices Markandey Katju and T S Thakur passed an order on September 13, 2010, granting a six-month extension to six petitioner colleges/institutions to make the appointments. The court has asked the registrar of the concerned universities to monitor the selection process and also accept the examination forms from the candidates who have already been admitted, subject to the final outcome of the SLP.
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