ABVP to file PIL to oppose Lovely University Bill
Jalandhar, December 25, 2005
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has decided to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) to oppose the passing of the Lovely Professional University Bill 2005. The ABVP has condemned the government for allowing the process of formation of a private university by Lovely Institutes.

Addressing media persons here today, the ABVP declared that the move would be opposed tooth and nail by the ABVP that would hold agitations to protest against the government’s move. The ABVP termed the various provisions of the Bill as having “grave consequences” for the future of education in the state.

The Bill has given a nod to the proposal that the university be handled by the Lovely International Trust, which belongs to a business house running the business of sweets and other items, said the ABVP members during their interaction with the media persons. “The most objectionable provision of the Bill is that it has demeaned the position of the Governor, as the Governor has only been accorded the status of visitor to the university and not the Chancellor of the university,” they alleged.

There was only one government nominee and so there could be no check on the functioning of the university, they claimed.

The ABVP also condemned “blanket approval for courses” that the university has been given. As per the provisions of the Bill, the university has the right to start various courses on its campuses, though as of now there were different universities for running technical, educational, engineering, medical and other specialised courses. In this context, the Bill only exposed the double standards of the government, alleged the ABVP leaders.

Another provision of the Bill that came in for criticism was that it allowed the university to prescribe any fee structure. “This would cater to the profit motive of the Trust heading the university,” they alleged.

The provision of allowing the university to give dual degrees of diploma, degree, or even certificate was “exceptional” in the entire country and had never been followed before, they claimed. The provision allowing the university to establish, operate and manage its campuses anywhere would only lead to opening of numerous “shops” that would further lead to the commercialisation of education, they alleged. Yet another “highly condemnable” provision of the Bill was that it allowed no litigation against the university, they added.

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidharthi Parishad (ABVP), has decided to seek the intervention of President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh against the Punjab Government's decision of setting up a private professional university in Jalandhar.
Talking to reporters here today ABVP state organising secretary Subhash Sharma said that the bill passed by the Punjab State Assembly for setting up of the Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar was against the larger interest of poor students and general masses, as it would make higher and professional education costly in the state.
He said that enormous powers delegated to the university management through the bill are bound to render ''damage to the sanctity of the education system and erode the government's authority in the university affairs.'' Besides presenting memoranda to the President and the Prime Minister, the ABVP would also file a petition before the Punjab and Haryana High Court and would launch statewide campaign against the government's decision.
http://www.abvp.org/index.php?middle=news_detail&id=21

Srinagar: Lovely Professional University (LPU) is Punjab’s first self-financing and India’s ninth university which according to the concerned officials has received great response in the very first year in admissions.
There are many factors, according to the university officials, behind this achievement like the location of the university, lush-green campus. Moreover the courses according to them have been designed according to the demands of the industry.
“Separate hostel facility for boys and girls within the campus is available. The courses offered are MBA, B.Sc. Biotech, M Sc. biotechnology, LLM, Bachelor in Physiotherapy (BPT), MPT (Ortho), Neuro, M.A. Education, BPE, B. Pharmacy, M Sc Physics, M Sc Chemistry. Moreover integrated courses like BBA-MBA, BCA-MCA, B Tech-M, Tech (ECE, IT, CSE) are also available,” said the officials.
“The specialty of these integrated courses is that these are of five years duration and the students are having options to opt for one-degree course instead of completing the higher one,” they said. Both BCA, MCA, B Tech, MTech courses are of 6 years in which after BCA, there is MCA for 3 years.
“The air-conditional classrooms of the university provide conducive environment for studies so as to develop the overall personality of the student. Additionally, LPU has tied up with New Institutes, Universities and Higher Educational Institutions, which is an important platform for exchange of ideas,” the officials added.
In LPU, the faculty is not only responsible for imparting education but they also motivate for new research. In LPU, ultra modern laboratories provide better chance for students as well faculty. Special attention and investment has been done in its Labs, Libraries and Computer Labs. Along with modern hospital, Internet facility has been given.

Mr Bir Devinder Singh, Congress MLA, who had opposed the Lovely Professional University Bill, 2005, on the floor of the Punjab Assembly last month, today met the Punjab Governor, Gen S.F. Rodrigues (retd), to request him not to give his consent to the Bill and refer it to either the Select Committee of the House or the Committee of Experts to remove certain provisions.

Mr Bir Devinder Singh, who discussed the Bill with the Governor for about 45 minutes, also submitted a detailed representation exposing what he described as " obnoxious provisions".

Mr Bir Devinder Singh, who at the time of passing of the Bill in the House had sought permission from the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, to abstain from voting but was denied the same, told The Tribune that he explained to the Governor that if the Bill became an Act it would commercialise education and cause huge damage to educational standards in the state. He said that once this Bill became an Act, the managements of several other private institutions would line up to get their institutions also declared as universities by getting similar Bills passed.

It is, perhaps, for the first time in recent years that a ruling party MLA in Punjab has met the Governor to request him to withhold assent to a Bill.

Mr Bir Devinder Singh made a strong case against the Bill in the representation submitted to the Governor. He referred to an instance how the Madhya Pradesh Governor, Mr Bal Ram Jakhar, returned the Madhya Pradesh Private Universities Bill, 2003, which was passed by the MP Assembly on March 28, 2003.

Mr Bir Devinder Singh told the Governor that even before the " present piece of legislation was brought before the Legislative Assembly of the state, the name of Lovely university had figured as respondent number 9 in writ petition number 19, 2004, filed under Article 32 of the Constitution by way of public interest litigation (PIL) by Prof Yashpal, an eminent scientist and former Chairman of the University Grants Commission. Prof Yashpal had prayed to the apex court to declare the provisions of the Chhatisgarh Niji Kshetra Vishwavidyalaya Adhiniyam, 2002, ultra vires, and for quashing the notification issued by the state of Chhattisgarh." The apex court had quashed the notification. A copy of the judgement was given to the Governor.

The AIFUCTO, in a letter to the joint secretary, HE and CVC (MHRD), has highlighted the three vital issues concerning private universities, deemed universities and the teachers’ training institutes that have interrupted the performance of statutory bodies. Excerpts:

The constitutional responsibility of the statutory bodies like UGC, AICTE, NCTE and others is ‘promotion and co-ordination of university education and for the determination and maintenance of standards of teaching, examination and research in Universities’ (UGC Act, 1956).

Some serious developments have jeopardized the whole system as the statutory bodies have not performed their constitutional duties properly and thus noble vision has suffered in an alarming manner.

1. Private Universities: The recent phenomenon of spurt in the creation of Private Universities calls for urgent steps to stop the menace. Whereas the Private Universities Bill introduced in Rajya Sabha as a Private Member’s Bill in 1995 had not been passed by the Parliament due to the inherent potential of commercialization of HE hitting at the basic ethos of Constitution regarding equity, access, quality and justice, the Chhatisgarh phenomenon spearheaded the creation of one-room universities which had to be later quashed by the Supreme Court only after the filing of PIL by the eminent scientist and former Chairman, UGC, Professor Yash Paul; otherwise the profiteers and traders in HE would have wrecked the whole system with impunity.

Instead of powerfully stopping the legislations by States, the UGC came out with Gazetted Notification giving Regulations for the creation of Private Universities on Dec 27, 2003. This protectionism served as promoter of trading in HE. Being unconstitutional, it be withdrawn. The UGC Act of 1956 allows the establishment of a “University” but it has been unlawfully stretched to mean even a Private University, what even if it is legislated by the Centre or a State. The UGC Regulations notified on December 27, 2003 were formulated in the backdrop of Ambani Birla Report of the NDA Government.

Perusal of “Lovely Professional University” Bill & Act legislated by Punjab Government shows that it is unconstitutional as being blatantly violative of the constitutional mandates enshrined in the Constitution of India and the UGC Act of 1956. Shockingly, this is a “University” totally outside the purview of the UGC, AICTE, MCI and others, as per the Act, as there is no mention of these statutory bodies anywhere. The basic precepts of Constitution with respect to access, equity, justice have been thrown to winds.

As a test case, the AIFUCTO requested the UGC to stop the impending problems by saying firm No to this ‘University’. But no action has been taken as the ‘University’ has started its admission process and recruitment of Teachers.

Similar is the case of all other Private Universities legislated in Uttaranchal, U.P., H.P. and elsewhere. Mr. B.S. Hooda, Hon’ble C.M., Harayana has also announced the intention to legislate Private Universities.

The creation of Private Universities in these States also shows how politicians, bureaucrats and the authorities of statutory bodies may have surely been corrupted. The sensitized people of Punjab do feel that illegal gratifications have been exchanged in a big way.

Private Universities not only negate access, equity, justice, they will become centres of trading, profiteering, money laundering, authoritarianism, deculturation; changing black money into white money, besides being threat to the Preamble of Constitution i.e. Sovereignty, Democracy, Secularism, Socialism.

The AIFUCTO strongly opposes & rejects the very concept of a Private University/Private Educational Institution on the sacred land of India.

2. How has the Governor of each State legislating a Private University ignored his/her constitutional responsibility? Has he/she not violated the Constitution?

3. What steps are being taken by the Centre, including the Office of the President of India to stop the menace.

2. Deemed Universities: Sub-standardization has been ushered in by the UGC and MHRD in this area. Today, the no. is 102.

No doubt, the UGC Act does allow the declaration of a standard institute as a Deemed University.

The Punjab Government has given the go-ahead to establishing the self-financed Lovely Professional University around Jalandhar But the Press Conference announcing this decision saw the CM getting a bit embarrassed about the name and others in the Cabinet too felt the same. For recall the Lovely group had its origin in ‘mithai’ business and Lovely Ladoos were famous indeed. But the name doesn’t sound so lovely when it is to represent a university so the CM has asked the Cabinet Secretary to persuade them to change the name.

Amritsar, November 19
Mr Varinder Pal, Finance and Development Officer (FDO), Guru Nanak Dev University, in pursuance to his earlier petition has urged the Punjab Governor, Gen SF Rodrigues (retd), to withhold assent to the Lovely Professional University Bill 2005.

In his communication, he has sought the attention of the Governor on the alleged bypassing of guidelines of the apex court wherein 117 universities of Chhattisgarh were declared null and void of which the Lovely University, Jalandhar, was one of them. Quoting the judgment, he said several guidelines would be flouted to bring such a university to function.

He suggested that in view of the provisions required for acknowledging the university and subsequent pressure from some quarters, it would be advisable to reserve the Bill for consideration of the President of India, in exercise of his power under Article 200 of the Constitution, as the issue entails wider legal ramifications.

In his address, he stated that many private universities have challenged the provisions of the amending act itself thereby exposing their intention and purpose “that they do not want to create any infrastructure but merely want to have right of conferring degrees and earning money”.

Earlier, the Governor had sought clarifications from the government regarding the Bill passed by Punjab Assembly on October 18 with an aim to set up university at Jalandhar by Lovely International Trust.

JALANDHAR: The Jalandhar-based Lovely Institutes says it has become the second largest institute of professional studies in India after Benaras Hindu University after enrolling more than 8,000 regular students. Spread over 200 acres, the institute is a cluster of 13 independent institutes, which offer its students, besides a professional ambience, a chance to excel in extra-curricular activities as well.

This group offers more than 60 professional courses through, regular, distance and online modes. Set up in 2001 at Chaheru on the Jalandhar-Phagwara National Highway, it got more than 8000 students within five years by offering a superb infrastructure and tie-ups with reputed foreign universities. “The computer laboratory here, that has 1,000 terminals with 24-hour online facility, is the best in region,” said Mr Ashok Mittal and Mr Ramesh Mittal, president and chairman, respectively, of the Lovely International Trust.

Under joint placement, students from adjoining institutes are invited to take part in campus interviews. The institute’s students even secured the patent for a square-hole drilling machine.

Lovely varsity Bill- protesting Cong MLA Bir Devinder meets Governor