Cancel EV Velu’s college licence over fraud, says plea; HC asks AICTE to consider charge
CHENNAI: The Madras High Court refused to cancel the licence of Saraswathi Ammal Educational Trust chaired by the wife of Minister EV Velu and directed AICTE to consider the petition alleging that the trust had fraudulently obtained a licence to run colleges.
The Chief Bench comprising Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice J Sathya Narayana Prasad heard a petition moved by TS Sankar seeking to cancel the licence of Saraswathi Ammal Educational
Trust in Tiruvannamalai. The petitioner’s counsel submitted that in 1993, the trust had constructed the college and obtained a licence through fraudulent documents.
According to the rules of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), every education institute must have 20 acres of land to obtain a licence, but the trust had fraudulently obtained the license with only 7.5 acres of land at that time. Hence, the counsel sought to cancel the licence.
Senior counsel P Wilson, representing the Trust submitted that it had 24.66 acres of land and AICTE had also approved it. He also submitted that a vendor had cheated the educational trust by selling land that encroached upon a water body. When the trust found out about it, the land was returned to the government. “The trust purchased another land to construct the college. The petitioner has invented a story with old land survey numbers and filed this petition,” said the counsel.
After the submission, the bench refused to cancel the licence and directed the AICTE to consider Sankar’s request as it was the expert body to do so, and disposed of the petition.
When the petitioner submitted that Minister Velu had threatened him for filing a case against the educational trust, the bench directed him to approach the concerned court.
The trust purchased another land to construct the college. The petitioner has invented a story with old land survey numbers and filed this petition —Senior counsel P Wilson, Saraswathi Ammal Educational Trust