‘Education bills are against Constitution’
A newly-formed body of universities termed as “unconstitutional” a series of bills aimed at reforming higher education in the country and demanded that they be referred to a committee headed by a Supreme Court judge.
The Indian Council of Universities, which held its first meeting here, discussed the Educational Tribunal Bill, 2010, the Prohibition of Unfair Practices in technical educational institutions, medical educational institutions and Universities Bill, 2010 and the Higher Education and Research Bill, 2010 which is yet to be introduced in Parliament.
The opposition from the body comes close on the heels of a similar resistance HRD minister Kapil Sibal faced in the Rajya Sabha with the Educational Tribunal Bill passed by the Lok Sabha.
The meeting, attended by senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Oscar Fernandes as head of a parliamentary standing committee on HRD, felt that the bills were “unconstitutional and their constitutional validity needs to be checked”, ICU president S.S. Pabla, also the vice-chancellor of Sikkim Manipal University, told reporters here. He claimed that Mr Fernandes suggested that the ICU representatives should place its views before the parliamentary committee. The Congress leader, however, was not present at the press briefing.
The ICU at present has 60 members, which include chancellors, vice-chancellors of private, central, state and deemed universities and institutions of national importance. The body dem-anded that all the bills on higher education be referred to the top law officers or a committee be set up under a Supreme Court judge to check their validity in view of constitutional provisions distributing the legislative powers related to higher education among states and the Centre.
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