The Himachal Pradesh Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission has been revived following the decision of Supreme Court to restore the status quo ante.
The apex court stayed the judgment of Himachal High Court of quashing the HP Private Educational Institutions (Regulatory Commission) Act 2010, under which the Commission was constituted.
Himachal government had challenged the October 19, 2013 order of the High Court and reasoned that the state enacted the law as it felt the need to protect the interests of the student community and the public at large in the light of growing commercialisation of education and the exploitative practices of private educational institutions.
The regulatory commission set up under the Act was to take steps to maintain quality of education being provided by these institutions besides keeping a check on the fees charged by them.
The HC struck down the Act and the rules on the ground that there was a "constitutional bar" on states to enact laws infringing on Entry 66 of List I of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution under which the Centre had the responsibility of "coordination and determination of standards in institutions for higher education or research and scientific and technical institutions."
The state contended that it had exclusive power under the Constitution to enact laws to incorporate, regulate and wind up universities.
Declaring the Act of 2010 "ultra vires and void ab initio", the division bench of High Court had said that "from the analysis already done, we have no hesitation in taking the view that the State Legislature was incompetent to enact law on the subject which was covered by the field occupied by Entry 66 of the Union List.
The Commission has been revived as the SC order has restored the "status quo ante" as on October 19 last year and all sixteen private universities and other private educational institutions would now be under the regulatory control of the commission.
The CPI(M) has stated it has come as a big relief to the concerned citizens of the state who were desperately demanding a regulatory body over these institutions.
The CPI (M) had been at the forefront against the non-regulation of private educational institutions and had even criticised the then government for making the regulatory commission a toothless body.
