Panic gripped students of 17 institutions in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, which are set to lose their deemed university status in the wake of the Centre deciding to de-recognize them.
While students of a deemed university in Chennai took to the streets to protest the decision to de-recognize the institutions, their managements are planning to move the court.
Most of the deemed universities in the state are owned by politicians, including the Bharat University, run by the children of Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting S Jagatharakshakan.
"We would implead ourselves in the case", Ishari K Ganesh, son of late Isari Velan, who was a Parliamentary Secretary during late M G Ramachandran government, and Chancellor of Vel's University, said.
The institutions were neither served any show cause notice nor were given any time to rectify alleged discrepancies, he said.
"Most of the universities are just about a year old and were given deemed university status after inspection of facilities and infrastructure by University Grants Commission panel," he said.
The Centre, in its affidavit in the Supreme Court, said it would remove the deemed university tag of 44 educational institutions across the country. Meanwhile, political parties in the state expressed concern over the future of the students.
CPI-M state secretary N Varadarajan in a statement said, "the Centre and state government are duty-bound to ensure that the students continue their education without any problem and action should be taken against those who had granted recognition to such institutions."
He "regretted" that such institutions were being managed by persons with political background and welcomed the Centre's proposal to restore status quo and affiliate them with universities they were previously affiliated to.
State BJP president Pon Radhakrishnan said though the Centre had announced that students can continue their education in the respective institutions, "it has conveniently forgotten that quality will take a beating."
"The students and parents are worried about their future. The Centre should immediately make its stand on the Deemed universities clear and take steps to restore quality of education," he said in a statement. PTI
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