The Madras High Court has ordered registration of a police complaint against a private teacher training college in Puducherry for admitting students without affiliation.
The court said the institute was commercialising education and cheating poor students by admitting them, though its affiliation to the Pondicherry University had been cancelled in the previous academic year.
Justice S M Subramanian directed the university to register the complaint against Usha Lachumanan College of Education in Thirukkanur while dismissing a miscellaneous petition by aggrieved students of the institute seeking permission to appear for university exams.
He said by permitting the students to write the examination, the court cannot allow continuation of the illegality which had already crept in.
Observing that the college had cheated the students as well as the society, the judge directed the police to investigate the matter and proceed with further action, and posted the main petition to June 11 for final hearing.
The college had been adopting the tactic of getting an interim order and permitting students to write the examination and thereafter admitting the students in the next academic year. This way, it was commercialising education and cheating poor students, the judge said.
In their main petition, the students, admitted to B.Ed course in 2017-18 academic year, sought a direction to the university to permit them to continue and complete their course in the institute without any break or transfer them to any other approved institution affiliated to the varsity.
The judge said the petitioners or all other similarly placed students were entitled to claim exemplary compensation from the institute.
He said, "This court is of the strong opinion that it is a social concern wherein such institutions are functioning without any affiliation. Further, the competent authorities are also not initiating appropriate action against such institutions."
Hence, there is a possibility of collusion between these officials in admitting the students even as the institute did not have any affiliation, the judge said, and noted that in spite of cancellation of affiliation to the college in 2016-17 itself, it had admitted the students in the next academic year.
It had not only committed an illegality, but also an offence of collecting huge fees by cheating the students, he said.
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