National
Affiliation at Agriculture University postponed
The Supreme Court (SC) has postponed the hearing on the case filed by private colleges to continue their affiliation from the Agriculture and Forestry University. This move legally stops the admission process in current academic session. The private colleges had moved to the apex court demanding to scrap the Cabinet’s decision to stop their affiliation from the university.Binod Ghimire
The Supreme Court (SC) has postponed the hearing on the case filed by private colleges to continue their affiliation from the Agriculture and Forestry University. This move legally stops the admission process in current academic session. The private colleges had moved to the apex court demanding to scrap the Cabinet’s decision to stop their affiliation from the university.
Amid reservations from different quarters, the executive council of the university had on July 4 last year decided to grant affiliation, sparking protests. Following the protests, the Cabinet on July 30 in the same year scrapped the affiliation barring eight private colleges from admission. The proposal tabled by Minister for Education, Science and Technology Giriraj Mani Pokharel, the pro-chancellor of the university, was endorsed unanimously by the Cabinet.
The private colleges challenged the Cabinet’s decision in the SC arguing that the universities are autonomous entities, and therefore, the government bears no authority to cancel their decisions. The apex court, however, has denied issuing an interim order and giving priority to the case as demanded by the private college operators. The SC now has postponed the hearing for March 26.
The hearing was postponed as per the request from the government attorney.
A majority of the teachers and students from the university are also against the ffiliation demanding authorities focus more on effectively running constituent colleges, rather than focus on adding more affiliations.
“The constituent colleges of the universities are struggling in the lack of proper resources and funding. The university authority, however, are more concerned in providing new affiliation than improving the constituent colleges,” Kadariya added.