The Court has restrained the UGC from calling, declaring or otherwise treating the Bhartia Shiksha Parishad as fake university pending final decisions in the suit.  

According to Section 22 of the UGC Act 1956, the right of conferring or granting degrees can be exercised only by a university established or incorporated by or under a Central Act., or a State Act or an institution deemed to be a university under Section 3 of UGC Act., 1956 or an institution specially empowered by an Act of Parliament to confer or grant degrees.

Thus, any institution which has not been created by an Act of Parliament or a State Legislature or has not been granted the status of a deemed university, cannot award degree.

RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE PARLIAMENTARY STANDING COMMITTEE:

The committee made the following recommendations to check the menace of fake universities and degrees;

1. Preparation of comprehensive list of fake universities/institutions by UGC or the Department of Education and its publication for the information of the general public.
2. Creation of a self-working system within UGC to act as vigilance machinery/cell and also to monitor the activities of such institutions.
3. There should be some mechanism or machinery to find out the existence of fake universities.
4. Creation of a separate cell in UGC to follow-up in courts of law with the State Governments and provision of additional funds to UGC for this purpose.
5. UGC and Department of Education should take up the matter regarding publication of advertisement by fake universities with the Press Council of India and Editor's Guild etc. to finalize the modalities for exercising restraint by newspapers on the publication of such advertisement.
6. A separate Schedule may be annexed to the Act mentioning the words university, Vishwavidyalaya, Vidyapeeth and such other words as may be used in other regional languages so as to cover them under the definition of "University" as contained in Section 2(f) of the Act.
7. Inclusion of a suitable provision in the UGC Act for closure of fake universities and for confiscation of their property and assets and seizure of documents such as Registration papers; accounts; papers relating to acquisition of the movable property and assets etc., at the time of closure.
8. Dropping of proviso to Section 24 of the pending UGC (Amendment) Bill 1995 which enables Courts to exercise their discretion to reduce minimum punishment provided for.
9. Inclusion of a provision in the UGC Act specifying that UGC would be competent authority to initiate legal proceedings against the offending institution(s) / person(s).

 ACTION TAKEN BY UGC AND GOVERNMENT:

The UGC has taken initiatives and measures on the lines recommended by the Parliamentary Committee to curb the functioning of illegally established universities and fake institutions. Some of the measures are listed as under:

1. The UGC has set up a Special Cell to deal with the matters relating to the existence/functioning of fake universities in the country, which collect information through print media and disseminates information about them.
2. The UGC has prepared a list of such 18 universities. Action taken by UGC against these fake universities is annexed.
3. UGC issues Press releases at the beginning of each academic session to caution the students etc.
4. UGC has filed court cases against several fake universities and in some cases such universities have gone to the Court.
5. The Minister of Human Resource Development has requested the Chief Ministers on 1^st September, 1998 of all State Governments to keep a strict vigil and prosecute such institution for violating the UGC Act., 1956 and other penal laws.
6. The Ministry constituted a Task Force to suggest amendments in the UGC Act in view of the recommendations of the Standing Committee and the proposal of the UGC.

RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE TASK FORCE:

The Task Force has completed its work and has suggested the following recommendations to incorporate in the UGC (Amendment) Bill:

1. The penalty for the contravention of the provision of Section 22 or Section 23 of the UGC Act should be enhanced to imprisonment for term which shall not be less than one year and will be extendable to three years, and also fine not less than one lakh rupees but may exceed to ten lakh rupees.
2. If the person contravening the provisions of the Act is an Association or a body of individuals, every member of such Association or body who knowingly or wilfully authorize or permit such a contravention shall be punished in the manner as indicated above.
3. Anyone who is in any way connected with such an enterprise or is a beneficiary in any form shall be liable to be penalized as per above recommendations including seizure of assets connected with its management and control.
4. The offences will be cognizable as well as non-bailable.
5. A list of the degree/ diplomas/ certificates to conform to the UGC requirements will be published before the beginning of the each academic year.
6. No institutions, not duly created by or under the act of Parliament or the Sate Legislature, shall have the right to use the word 'University' including any variant of it in any language, along with its name.