HC stays central govt order on ITI affiliation

The Madras High Court today stayed a August 2012 Union Labour Ministry order that all Industrial Training Centres and Industrial Training Institutes should get re-affiliation on the basis of evaluation and accreditation by Quality Council of India (QIC).
Justice T Raja granted the interim stay on a batch of petitions challenging the August 6, 2012 order issued by the Director General of Employment and Training (DGET), Ministry of Labour.
According to the petitioner institutions, the power to grant affiliation to ITCs and ITIs vested with DGET and The Director of Employment and Training, Guindy, Chennai.
All the petitioners institutions had been granted permanent affiliation and there would be periodic inspection to ensure that the required norms were met.

That being the present position, there was no necessity to entrust the affiliation aspect to the QCI which was nothing but privatisation of the vocational education, they charged.
The petitioners further alleged that by issuing the circular, authorities had delegated their powers to a private body because of which the institutions now had to depend upon the decision of QCI.
They contended that QCI was without any authority of law and entrustment of affiliation with it was arbitrary exercise of power.