NEW DELHI, Feb 13: The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the dissolution of the Chander Mohan Jha University in Meghalaya upholding the state government’s 2014 decision to shut down the institution over mismanagement and several other shortcomings.
A bench comprising Justices P S Narasimha and Sandeep Mehta held the procedure prescribed under Section 14(1) of the CMJ University Act for the appointment of the chancellor was not duly followed.
Consequently, the appointment of the chancellor of the CMJ University was rightly declared to be invalid and non-est in the eyes of law by the division bench of the high court and the impugned judgment to this extent, does not suffer from any infirmity, it said.
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“We hold that the dissolution order dated March 31, 2014 has been passed with strict adherence to the procedural requirements outlined under Section 48 of the Act, and in compliance with the directions issued by this court…we affirm the decision of the state government in dissolving the CMJ University vide order dated March 31, 2014,” it added.
The court allowed the state government to take appropriate measures following its decision.
The Meghalaya government, it said, had provided CMJ university ample opportunities to rectification of its violations.
“Before passing the dissolution order, the state government analysed the explanation provided by the appellants, and evaluated the supporting evidence. While recording the final determination, it thoroughly and minutely adverted to the manifest irregularities and discrepancies portrayed in the running and the management of the CMJ University and discarded the same with exhaustive reasons,” the bench said.
The court found that the Meghalaya High Court was “fully justified” in quashing and setting aside the order dated July 16, 2015 passed by a single judge, who invalidated the dissolution order.
The university, founded in 2009, awarded a record number of 434 PhD degrees between 2012 and 2013 aside from registering 490 more PhD scholars in violation of the UGC norms. (PTI)
