The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has issued a showcause notice to the Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), asking it why the technical education regulator shouldn't initiate action against it.
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."
"Against the backdrop of what happened recently, we have served a show cause notice to IIPM, asking them to explain their stand and also why action shouldn't be taken against them," said Shankar S Mantha, chairman, AICTE.
The University Grants Commission (UGC) and AICTE had last month told Business Standard they are consulting their respective legal departments on possible actions.
IIPM has 18 branches across the country offering courses in Bachelor in Business Administration, Masters in Business Administration, Executive MBA and Bachelor of Computer Application.
While AICTE has listed all of IIPM's branches under its list of 330-odd unapproved institutions, it says the state governments also need to take action in this regard.
"We give 15 days to an institution to reply. Technically, we can escalate things as within the AICTE Act, there are several actions we can take. But in doing this also, there is a procedure to follow and AICTE will abide by that," added Mantha.
Following a complain from an IIPM business partner alleging "defamatory web material" targeting the "institute", a Gwalior court last month ordered the blocking of 73 uniform resource locators (URLs).
Prior to the order, 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."
"It is further clarified for information that IIPM is neither entitled to award MBA/BBA/BCA degree nor it is recognised by UGC," the notice adds.
Arindam Chaudhuri, who now heads the institute, established by his father, Malayendra Kisor Chaudhuri, in 1973, did not respond to an email sent to him.
Harivash Chaturvedi, director of Birla Institute of Management and Technology, and alternate president of the Education Promotion Society of India, who is planning a signature campaign against unapproved institutions, said, "The government is not willing to act against unapproved institutions in the country. If it wanted to crack the whip, it would have done so long back. How is it possible that hundreds of institutes run without the approval of regulatory bodies. Why can't we have fast track courts to deal with fake institutions."
