The Union government has assured the Supreme Court that it would examine afresh its earlier decision to derecognise 44 deemed universities for lacking appropriate academic infrastructure and faculty.

Attorney General G E Vahanvati gave an undertaking to the bench of justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma that the government would reconsider the issue after conducting physical verification of various educational facilities available in the universities and hearing them afresh.

Vahanvati told the court that the government will issue fresh individual notices to the universities it had decided to derecognise earlier but had put a hold on its decision following an order from the apex court. The universities were given an opportunity to explain as to why they should not be derecognised.

The Attorney General told the court that the government would hear all the universities after issuing them individual notices.

The bench, while recording the Attorney General’s submission, asked the government to issue notices to various universities within two weeks and give them two weeks thereafter for filing replies.

The court also asked the government to pass individual orders by 23rd April pertaining to each university on the basis of their replies and submit a comprehensive report to it.

While posting the matter for further hearing on 3rd May, the bench said its earlier status quo order restraining the government from taking any action against the universities would continue till further directions.

Earlier, Vahanvati also indicated to the bench that while examining afresh if the 44 deemed universities should be allowed to have their prestigious tag or should be stripped of it, the government would also re-evaluate if the universities have upgraded their physical infrastructure and educational facilities to justify their ‘deemed’ status.

The court said its paramount concern at the moment was with regard to the students’ future.

The court had earlier asked various state governments as to whether they would still like to grant affiliation to these universities in case the Centre derecognises them.

The court’s order had followed the Centre’s move to derecognise the universities on the basis of Tandon Committee report, which had recommended stripping some of them of their deemed tag on the ground that they had emerged as “personal fiefdoms” of their promoters and had turned out to be pure commercial ventures of their managements.