Validity of agri courses in new univs depends on HC verdict

Validity of agri courses in new univs depends on HC verdict

Colleges Move Court Against Rules Laid Down By GO

Sureshkumar.K@timesgroup.com

Chennai:  07.10.2020

The fate of students joining agriculture courses in newly mushrooming private deemed universities will hang in the balance, as the Madras high court has said validity of their admissions would be subject to the outcome of cases challenging a state government order.

The issue pertains to a GO dated July 28 stipulating various conditions on the universities, including obtaining a no objection certificate (NOC), to conduct agricultural and allied courses within six months.

The universities were also restrained from admitting students to such courses till they obtain NOC from the state.

Aggrieved, the institutions moved the high court. On September 29, a single judge of the court stayed the operation of the GO and directed the registry to tag the cases with other similar pending cases and place it before the Chief Justice.

The first bench of Chief Justice A P Sahi and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy on Tuesday observed that admission would be subject to the result of these petitions.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu advocate-general Vijay Narayan submitted that the GO was issued in view of a sudden mushrooming of such agriculture institutions and to regulate the same. Noting that the government had no intention to interfere with the day-to-day affairs of the universities, he said, “This is one subject that needs to be taught in the fields and not in classrooms.”

Any institution which desires to conduct such courses must own 110 acres of farm land with clear title and without any encumbrances. Such conditions are imposed as every student must be given access to fields to plough, sow and nurture crops as part of their practical training, he added.

Unlike other subjects, agriculture education is in the state list and only the state has exclusive power to impose such conditions, he asserted.

To this, the bench wondered whether the state expected an existing institution imparting such courses for the past 50 years with 10 acres of land to now buy 100 more acres to get an NOC.

Vijay Narayan, however, replied that such institutions are mushrooming only in the past three to two years and that is the primary reason for the GO.

Earlier, opposing the GO, senior advocate G Masilamani representing Karunya deemed university, said the GO was an encroachment into their status of deemed university.

Recording the submission of Vijay Narayan that the GO would not cause any impediment to students who are already admitted to the courses in the past academic years, the bench posted the pleas after six weeks for further arguments.

The issue pertains to a GO dated July 28 stipulating various conditions on the universities, including obtaining a no-objection certificate, to conduct agricultural and allied courses within six months. The varsities were also restrained from admitting students till they obtain NOC