 "IIPM to seek review of Delhi high court ruling on courses")
Arindam Chaudhuri, honorary director at IIPM Think Tank, told Business Standard he would personally go to the judges for a review of their verdict. He added that he would also appeal against the ruling in the Supreme Court. The high court verdict includes Rs 25,000 cost to be paid to the Delhi Legal Services Authority.
"We have always stated to our students that we do not offer any degree. Hence, courses like MBA, BBA are out of the question because we have never claimed to offer these. IIPM has never tried to mislead students," Chaudhuri said.
| NEW LESSONS |
|
Ever since the institute began operations, Chaudhuri pointed out, students were told they would not get a degree or recognised certification from government bodies at the end of the course.
He said the only issue IIPM had faced was in 2010-11 when the institute partnered a university in Tamil Nadu where a student could get an MBA or BBA degree if they wished to. "Students had signed a declaration that they could get a degree if they wished to, by availing of our partnership. But when there were complaints, this partnership was ended," he added.
The Delhi High Court has asked IIPM to display its judgement prominently on its website within one week. Chaudhuri said this would be complied with.
The court also asked IIPM to display on its website that it was not recognised by any statutory body or authority. It was told to display the status of the foreign universities and institutions and the degrees they conferred for students enrolling with IIPM.
The ruling came on a public interest suit alleging that IIPM was misleading students by making them believe they would acquire an MBA or BBA qualification after studying there. The court said the purport of the order was that no institution should run management courses without the approval of the All India Council for Technical Education.
IIPM has been featuring in the regulator's list of unapproved institutions for some time now.
Chaudhuri maintained IIPM would not seek any accreditation in India. "We do not want to part of this system. In the past, we had been offered an opportunity to be accredited, but we chose not to since our freedom to offer courses would have been hampered by the rules," he said.
He also questioned how business schools that regularly featured in the AICTE's list of unapproved institutions used the word business school and why IIPM was being solely targeted.
The court raised questions about IIPM's partner institute, IMI Belgium, which it said was nothing but an alter ego or another face of IIPM.
Chaudhuri explained it was clearly mentioned that IMI was a group institute. The IMI website states it is the global arm of a leading business school of Asia, IIPM. Chaudhuri said IMI was allowed to operate in Belgium as a private institution and it was not mandatory to be accredited to offer programmes there.
This week's court ruling is not the only bit of bad publicity for IIPM. In February 2013, bloggers and cyber activists woke up to the news that urls (uniform resource locators) of 73 websites that were critical of IIPM, including some of their own blogs, had been ordered to be blocked.
These included the University Grants Commission website as well. The UGC had in February issued a public notice informing students and the public at large "...Indian Institute of Planning and Management is not a university within the meaning of Section 2(f) of the UGC Act 1956. Further as per section 22 of the UGC Act 1956, IIPM does not have the right of conferring or granting degrees as specific of conferring or granting degrees by the UGC under Section 22 (3) of the UGC Act."
Founded in 1974, the New Delhi-headquartered IIPM offers programmes in management, planning and entrepreneurship. However, the AICTE has always put IIPM in its list of unapproved institutions. Since it is neither accredited by the AICTE nor recognised by the UGC, IIPM cannot offer degrees or diplomas to students.
In March 2013, the AICTE issued a notice to IIPM, asking why the regulator should not initiate action against it.
Speaking to Business Standard today, S S Mantha, chairman of the AICTE, said the high court judgment was a lesson to all institutions that did not abide by the rules. He added the verdict was in the interests of students.
H Chaturvedi, director of BIMTECH, added, "This will be a landmark verdict for any institution and institutions will think twice before involving themselves in dubious activities," he said.