Karnataka High Court: While deciding a case, where petitioners challenged the constitutional validity of University Grant Commission (Institutions Deemed to be Universities) Regulations 2010 (Regulations) on the ground that they are violative of Articles 19(1); (g) and 26 of the Constitution of India, the Court declared these regulations to be unconstitutional as the aforesaid Regulations brought major changes in the rights of private unaided non-minority or minority educational institutions regarding management structure, fee fixation, student admissions, appointment of required staff, reservation policy and confiscation of property of the institute if there is any dereliction of duty on its part. These rights are considered to be a part of right to establish and administer educational institutions and any restriction affecting these above mentioned rights would render such restrictions unconstitutional and violative of Articles 19(1)(g), 26 and 30 of Constitution of India as held in TMA Pai Foundation v. State of Karnataka, (2002) 8 SCC 481 which is extensively cited by the Court in this case.
The Court also held Regulations are ultra vires Section 26(2) of the University Grant Commission Act, 1956 (Act), which gives power to UGC to formulate regulations, and the impugned Regulations came under the category where prior approval of Central Government was not required before formulation, but same were not authored by UGC but by Central government. Manipal University v. Union of India, Writ Petition No. 17940-17941/2011, decided on 22nd of May, 2014
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