SC refuses to intervene in Delhi University-UGC row

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to intervene in the University Grants Commission-Delhi University row over the four-year undergraduate programme and directed a DU professor who challenged the commission's direction for scrapping the course to approach the Delhi high court.

A bench of justices Vikramajit Sen and S K Singh asked Professor Aditya Narayan Mishra to go to the high court against the direction issued by the UGC to the DU against the controversial FYUP, which was introduced from last academic session.

"Please go to the high court. The high court would consider the matter and we would also have benefit of the reasoning of the HC on the issue (when the matter comes before SC)," the bench said.

Mishra, a former Delhi University Teachers' Association president and an assistant pProfessor at Aurbindo College, submitted in his plea that the FYUP is valid and ordinance brought by the varsity regarding this is consistent with the UGC guidelines.

A year after the programme was introduced, DU and the UGC are at loggerheads over the course and a group of DU teachers on Tuesday went on a 24-hour long hunger strike to protest against the commission's order for its roll back.

The UGC had issued directions both to DU and all 64 colleges under it to conduct admission under the three-year under-graduate programme and not under the four-year UG programme implemented by the varsity last year.

The UGC had warned DU and its colleges of "consequences" if they failed to implement the commission's direction.

Image:  Members of Youth for Change celebrate the University Grants Commission’s diktat to Delhi University on the FYUP near Swami Vivekanandas statue at the universitys North Campus in New Delhi on Monday. Photograph: PTI