Educational institutions must follow AICTE, says Hyderabad High Court

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court has upheld the norms and standards laid down by the All-India Council for Technical Education, under Section 10(1)(i) of the AICTE Act, 1987.While upholding the norms a division bench comprising Justice V. Ramasubramanian and Justice J. Uma Devi made it clear that “ever since the educational institutions converted education into a big business venture, market forces themselves have put them in place. Therefore, economic unviability can never be a basis for challenging the fixation of norms.”The bench said this while dismissing a petition Joseph Sriharsha & Mary Indraja Educational Society, a group of minority institutions, challenging the norms and standards laid down by the AICTE.

The petitioners urged the court to declare the norms laid down by the AICTE uniformly for all institutions irrespective of fee fixed by states as illegal and arbitrary.They argued that when the fee structure is regulated, it will be impossible for educational institutions to adhere to costly AICTE norms.
The bench said: “We do not think that educational institutions can now challenge the statutory prescriptions on the ground of economic unviability.”