AP High Court asks state to take action against errant colleges

By S A Ishaqui

Hyderabad, April 6: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Tuesday directed the state government and the AP state council of higher education to initiate action against errant colleges that are flouting admission rules and playing with the careers of students.

Justice C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy, while dismissing a batch of writ petitions filed by several students, found fault with the attitude of colleges.

The petitioners had urged the court to declare the action of the Higher education council in not approving their admissions as illegal and sought direction to approve their admissions and permit them to complete their engineering and MBA courses.

The judge further said, by feigning ignorance the students cannot invoke sympathy of the court. “When admittedly, the colleges have violated the statutory provision in admitting them, the court cannot grant relief to them on misplaced sympathies and misconceived equities.”

Justice Reddy observed that “these observations reflect the state of affairs of the educational institutions. Many of these appear to follow the rules more in breach by indiscriminately admitting students contrary to the rules and regulations in force.”

The judge pointed out “the sympathy, which was being extended by this court on a case to case basis depending upon the facts, is being misused by the colleges to make unlawful gains knowing well that their acts are contrary to the specific statutory provisions.”

Raju allowed to file detailed counter

The Special Court on Satyam case has allowed Mr B. Ramalinga Raju to file a detailed counter against the Central Bureau of Investigation’s (CBI) allegation of violating the court orders in meeting people at Nims while in judicial custody.

The defence counsel told the court that Rajus were facing 40 cases filed by various law-enforcing agencies in different countries. The defence argued that a 12-member panel of advocates were meeting him in the hospital.

CBI earlier alleged that the accused Ramalinga Raju met around 234 persons from December 12, 2009 to March 27, 2010 at Nims where he is undergoing treatment Hepatitis C.