HC quashes govt order on moratorium for engineering colleges

: Kerala Government today quashed the government order imposing moratorium on granting No Objection Certificate to new Self-Financing Engineering colleges in the academic year 2013-14.
Flaying the government stand, Justice A M Shafique allowed a batch of petitions filed by various organisations which had submitted applications to AICTE seeking approval to start self-financing engineering colleges in Kerala.
The court approved the argument of the petitioners that the state had no 'legislative competence' to fix a moratorium.
The government took the view that mushrooming of colleges in the state was a matter that needs to be looked into. Government order is a policy of the state to have control over the number of institutions to be established in the state, it was stated.

The court said the state cannot impose any moratorium to start any self-financing engineering colleges during 2013-14 academic year.However, it made clear that AICTE while granting approval to private engineering colleges should consider the views expressed by the state government in this regard before granting approval.