The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday refused to stay a government order (GO Ms No. 54) issued by the state to inspect whether engineering colleges have the required infrastructure and other facilities prescribed by the All India Council for Technical Education.
Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy was dealing with a plea by the Rayalaseema Private Engineering and Pharmacy Colleges Managements’ Association challenging the GO Ms No. 54, contending that it was issued to harass those managements who have not filed their affidavits before the AFRC agreeing to Rs 35,000 per student as the annual fee.
The state government issued the GO on August 11, 2012, to constitute a task force for inspection of professional colleges, to check whether they have the required infrastructure such as library, laboratory, teaching and non-teaching staff, and are disbursing salaries in accordance with the AICTE requirements.
The government submitted before the court that there will not be any such discrimination and the GO will apply uniformly to all the colleges irrespective of whether they have filed affidavits or not. After hearing the case, the judge directed the state to observe uniformity in applying GO 54 to all the colleges without giving any scope for apprehension that colleges that have not filed affidavits before the AFRC are being victimised.
The judge directed the principal secretary for higher education, commissioner of technical education, secretary to state council for higher education and AFRC to file affidavits giving details of colleges inspected by the task force along with the inspection reports in four weeks.