The state government on Monday
told Bombay high court that Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies
(JBIMS) was never an autonomous institution and was never granted autonomy by
the University Grants Commission.
A bench of Justices Satyaranjan Dharmadhikari and Sandeep Shinde were told by
advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni that the institute and Mumbai University
proceeded on the footing of autonomy but had not completed the formality of
getting UGC’s concurrence. The 5-year autonomy from 2014-15 expired on July11,
2019. “Unfortunately in this case, the matter was not forwarded to UGC. With this
flaw, it can’t be considered autonomous,” he said. Justice Dharmadhikari
remarked, “Your autonomy was no autonomy.” The AG said the matter was noticed
only in January 2019, after which the Director of Technical Education wrote to
JBIMS that its name is not on the list of autonomous institutions published by
UGC. JBIMS was asked to clarify the position or else its admissions would be
considered on a nonautonomy basis.
Kumbhakoni
said a proposal for autonomy has been sent to UGC. “That is taking time. That is
the reason why there is delay. Whatever happened has happened. We can’t brush
it under the carpet. We want to correct it. We want to give a correct status to
the institution,” he added.
The court
heard a petition by 9 students from universities outside Mumbai who said
because of non-renewal of autonomy, the seat matrix has changed to that of a
non-autonomous institute and 70% seats are now reserved for MU students, 15%
for universities outside Mumbai in Maharashtra and 15% for all-India quota. In
case of autonomous institutions, seat allocation is 85% for Maharashtra and 15%
on an all-India basis.
The
students’ advocates Satish Talekar and Madhavi Ayyappan argued they didn’t have
any idea that autonomy would expire. They said websites of JBIMS, DTE, state CET
cell and university showed JBIMS is autonomous. “For the first time on July 12,
CET cell’s website showed it as non-autonomous,” Talekar said. He also said
admissions were to be finalised on July 9. “Their admissions would have been
finalised before autonomy came to an end. Seventy percent for home university
is too excessive. Why should they suffer for negligence of authorities?” he
asked.
The AG
justified allocation of 70% seats for MU, saying JBIMS is not a separate
college but an MU department. He said SC has approved institutional preference
and a home varsity could keep seats for its use. He said despite nonautonomy,
national character is retained with 15% seats for all India and even global
character with an extra 15% over and above for PIOs, NRIs and foreign
nationals. He said JBIMS is ready to absorb the 9 petitioners in the 18 seats
of the 15% international quota as 120 seats are filled. But Talekar said more
students have moved court. The judges will pass an order on Tuesday.
Source | Times of India | 23rd
July 2019
No comments:
Post a Comment