The Himachal Pradesh High Court today directed the chief secretary to constitute a committee to carry out inspection of all private educational institutions and submit a report in 3 months regarding compliance of H.P. Private Educational Institutions (Regulation) Act, 1997.
Rejecting the plea of Business Institute of Management Studies, Shimla, against the orders of HP Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Commission to refund the fee and challenging the jurisdiction of the Commission, Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan said that "special emphasis and care shall be taken to indicate in the report as to whether private institutions have the requisite infrastructure, parents teacher associations and qualified staff.
"whether these institutions are maintaining the accounts in terms of Rule 6 and are regularly submitting all the information in the forms prescribed under the Rules and are further charging the 'fee' as approved by the government," he said.
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The committee will further report about violations by the educational institutions of the guidelines issued by UGC from time to time as have otherwise been taken note of in this judgment and shall be free to report violation of any Act, rule, statutory provisions, guidelines etc,....And also keep in mind UGC Act, UGC (Establishment and Maintenance of Standards in Private Universities) Regulations, 2003 and instructions issued by UGC from time to time."
"I not only find no merit in these petitions but am of the firm view that the same are absolutely frivolous and, therefore, deserve to be dismissed with costs," the HC said, adding the petitions are dismissed with costs of Rs 10,000 each to be paid by the petitioners to H.P.State Legal Services Authority".
Observing that "private institutions cannot be permitted to operate like money-minting institutions rather it has to be ensured that they comply with all the rules, regulations and norms before they are granted permission to operate in Himachal Pradesh, the bench said that "innocent people of this state cannot be allowed to be duped any further".
"Imparting education can never be equated with profit-
oriented business as it is neither commerce nor business and if it is so, then the regulatory controls by those at the helm of affairs have not only to be continued but are also required to be strengthened", the order said adding that the term 'education' would mean a process of developing and training the powers and capabilities of human beings.
The order further said that "over a period of time, education has become a commodity in India and all genres of society are so overly obsessed with education that it has devalued itsreal essence. Education is no more a noble cause but has become a business, therefore, the paradigm shift, especially in higher education from service to business is a matter of concern", Justice Chauhan said.
Commercialization of education has a "dreadful effect that is so subtle that it often goes unnoticed, he said.
It is unfortunate that despite repeated pronouncements by the Supreme Court for over the past two decades deprecating the setting up of such institutions, mushrooming of schools, colleges, universities, technical boards and institutions continues all over the state at times in complicity with the statutory authorities who fail to check this process by effectively enforcing statutory provisions, the HC observed.
The bench observed that mushrooming of private universities has only led to a cut-throat competition leading to misleading advertisements which can only be termed to be persuasive, manipulative and exploitative to attract the widest possible audience and these institutes trap into their web the innocent, vulnerable and unsuspecting students.
The bench regretted that various laws enacted by the central and state governments to tackle commercialization of education are not only opposed tooth and nail but the provisions contained therein are implemented more in breach.
The order said that private education institutions, including schools, do not have the requisite infrastructure, nor do they maintain the accounts and have further failed to constitute the parent teacher associations.
"As if that was not enough, they would charge exorbitant fees. It is shocking that the private institutions have been raising their assets after illegally collecting funds like building fund, development fund, infrastructure fund etc and it is high time these practices are stopped forthwith and there is a crack down on all these institutions," the HC said.
Every education institution is accountable and they cannot under the garb of building fund etc. Illegally generate funds for their "business expansion" and create "business empires", the bench said, adding that "it is the responsibility of the institution imparting education to set up proper infrastructure for the students and therefore, the fee charged towards building fund is both unfair as well as unethical".
"It is high time that the respondent-State acts responsibly by conducting a fresh investigation of all these institutions as there is an urgent need for government intervention, correcting the systematic anomalies," the judge said.
