Maharashtra: Admissions Banned In 338 Colleges Till 24 June.

The Nagpur University has banned admissions to 338 colleges operating without regular teachers is yet to continue till 24th of June regarding to the High court hearing in the case which has been adjourned till 24th.

Purushottam Patil, Nagpur University Counsel had sought time of 2 weeks in order to file a rejoinder when the two petitions were listed on Wednesday.

The petitions were one regarding the absence of full time teachers at these colleges and second was on less than 50% of sanctioned strength of students.

He in fact pointed out to the court that many colleges from newly-established Gondwana University were also mentioned in the list of colleges where admissions were banned. He then requested the court to grant time to delete these names.

The new division bench comprising justice Bhushan Dharmadhikari and justice Sunil Shukre then asked petitioner Sunil Mishra as to whether he wants to add Gondwana University as a respondent in the case, to which he declined. The judges then asked NU counsel to submit his rejoinder before June 17 before fixing June 24 as the next date for hearing.

During the last hearing before the vacation bench on May 3, Justice Arun Chaudhari had expressed serious concern over the fact that 338 colleges were operating without even a single teacher and observed that if the position holds good even today, admissions of students to these colleges shall be subject to the further orders of this court and also at the risk and cost of vice chancellor, pro-VC and registrar.

At present, NU has 827 colleges, the highest number of affiliated colleges among all universities in the state, and the majority of them were working without principals, lecturers and infrastructure.

Recently, NU cleared proposals of 51 new colleges. TOI has been tracking this issue for last several years, exposing how NU allowed these colleges controlled by local politicians and influential persons to operate despite norms.