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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

21/01/25 10:39 AM IST

UGC’s draft regulation has serious constitutional issues

In News
  • The draft regulation by the University Grants Commission (UGC) on the selection and appointment of vice chancellors of universities has evoked protests by non-Bharatiya Janata Party-headed State governments.
UGC act
  • The University Grants Commission Act, 1956 was enacted by Parliament to make provision for “the co-ordination and determination of standards in Universities and for that purpose, to establish the University Grants Commission”.
  • The Act, therefore, mandates the UGC to take all steps as it thinks fit for the promotion and the coordination of university education, and for the determination and maintenance of standards of teaching, examination and research in universities.
  • For performing these functions the UGC can allocate funds to the universities essentially for the maintenance and development of the universities, recommend measures necessary for the improvement of university education, advise the Union or State governments on the allocation of grants to universities for any general or specific purpose, collect information on all matters relating to university education in India and other countries and make them available to any university, regulation of fees.
  • Section 26 of the UGC Act empowers the UGC to make regulations for implementing the mandate of the Act.
  • But it is made clear in this section that these regulations need to be consistent with the Act and the rules made there under.
  • The most important among these regulations relate to defining the qualifications required of a person to be appointed to the teaching staff in a university, the minimum standards of instructions for the grant of any degree by a university, and regulating the maintenance of standards and the coordination of work or facilities in universities. 
  • The selection and the appointment of vice chancellors cannot be considered to be an exercise connected with maintaining the standards of education or promotion and coordination of university education.
  • The Bombay High Court in Suresh Patilkhede vs The Chancellor Universities of Maharashtra and Others (2011) corroborates this view in the following words “we are of the view that qualifications and method of appointment of Pro-Chancellor and Vice Chancellor of the University cannot be treated as satisfying the ‘direct impact’ test [on the standards of education]”.
  • Therefore, it is safe to assume that under Section 26 of the UGC Act, the UGC has no mandate to make any regulation in respect of the selection and the appointment of vice chancellors. 
  • Clause (2) of this Article says that if the law made by the legislature of a state has been reserved for the consideration of the President and has received his ascent, it shall prevail in the State.
  • In this clause the word ‘law’ simply means the Bill passed by the legislature and sent to the President. It does not include the rules and regulations which are framed only after ascent is received.
  • So, what overrides a State law is a Bill passed by both Houses of Parliament and assented to by the President, and certainly not the subordinate legislation. 
Source- The Hindu

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