SC asks NAAC to decide on pleas of deemed universities

The Supreme Court today asked all deemed universities to file their "self-appraisal report" within ten days with the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) for affirmation of their grades.
A bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C Pant gave three months time to the NAAC to decide on the issue of accreditation and grades of 121 deemed universities.
"The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) shall not insist for the compliance of the 2010 regulations. The Universities are directed to submit the self appraisal report within ten days," it said while making it clear that any decision of the NAAC would be subject to the outcome of a PIL questioning the procedure of grant of recognition to such universities.

During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said the government has received inputs from various stakeholders and was "going to come out with the regulations" on the issue.
He also said the Human Resource Development Ministry had consulted statutory bodies like All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), National Board of Accreditation (NBA), NAAC and the UGC and received their inputs.
Earlier, the court had asked Mehta to obtain instructions as to whether the 34 universities, which have been conferred the status of deemed universities, suffer "any deficiencies and, if so, how much time can be granted for rectification of the deficiencies."

The court had also rapped UGC on physical verification of infrastructure and faculty strength of deemed universities, which were black-listed by a government-appointed committee.
The remarks were made when the UGC counsel was trying to explain the circumstances for the delay by submitting that there was a need to modify the apex court order as the commission cannot go the way P N Tandon Committee categorised the deemed universities.