SC says diplomas are exempt from order scrapping engg degrees

NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday clarified its order cancelling engineering degrees awarded by three deemed universities would not apply to the diplomas awarded by these institutes.

Hearing a bunch of petitions that sought exemption from the November 3, 2017 order, the court said the case was about the validity of engineering degrees awarded through distance education. “…This court was not called upon to consider validity of diplomas conferred by such deemed to be universities,” it said.

“We cannot make any such exception. The infirmity in their degrees is basic and fundamental and cannot be wished away,” a bench of justice AK Goel and justice UU Lalit said, disposing of the pleas.

But the court offered relief to students who got jobs on the strength of the degrees. It asked them to sit an exam that would be conducted by the All India Council for Technical Education, the country’s regulator for engineering and business education.

“We direct AICTE to conduct the test in May-june 2018 and declare the result well in time. AICTE shall however extend the time to exercise the option to appear at the test suitably,” it said.

The court had clamped down on JRN Rajasthan Vidhyapeeth University, Udaipur; Vinayaka Mission Research Foundation, Salem, Tamil Nadu; and IASE Deemed University, Rajasthan that were awarding engineering degrees through distance education.

It cancelled all the degrees awarded since 2001 and also ordered a CBI probe.