The Supreme Court has come to the rescue of around four lakh students by ordering extension of the cut-off date for grant of affiliation to over 750 private technical institutions in Uttar Pradesh for academic session 2023-24.
The top court had in 2013 delivered a landmark judgement in the case of ‘Parsvanath Charitable Trust & Ors vs All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)’ and fixed timelines for the test, counselling and admissions for academic sessions in the institutions imparting technical education across the nation to ensure uniformity.
The Uttar Pradesh Technical Institutions Foundation (UPTIF) moved the top court claiming the applications to the state government for grant of approval for 2023-24 academic session were not decided by May 15, the deadline fixed by the top court.
The state governments are under an obligation to decide on grant or refusal of approval to technical institutions by May 15 every year.
A bench comprising Justices B R Gavai and Prashant Kumar Mishra took note of the submissions of senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, assisted by lawyer Abhinav Gaur, that the students, UPTIF and the private technical colleges will have to suffer the loss of the academic session without any fault on their part.
Singhvi, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh Technical Institutions Foundation, urged the cut off date for grant of affiliation be extended up to September 15.
He also said a month’s time after September 15 be granted for counselling in respect of the technical institutions and the courses approved by AICTE for academic session 2023-24.
“Though normally we would not have entertained the application for extension of period, however, taking into consideration that the career of about four lakh students is at stake, by way of last opportunity, we are inclined to allow the application in terms of prayer clause …,” the bench ordered on Wednesday.
There are a total of 756 technical colleges in Uttar Pradesh, lawyer Abhinav Gaur said.
