Major relief to universities across the country, The Supreme Court upheld the plea of Bharathidasan University.
The Supreme Court has ruled that to start a new department or course in technical education, these educational institutions need no prior approval of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). Delivering the judgment, Mr. Justice S RajendraBabu, upheld the plea of Bharatidasan University to begin courses in technology including IT, BT management etc without securing the prior sanction of AICTE. The bench also included Justice Mr. Doraiswany Raju. The AICTE regulation so far forces universities to look for and obtain prior sanction to launch department or course or programme in technical education.

"So far as the question of granting approval, leave alone prior or post, Section 10(1)(k) specifically confines the limits of such power of AICTE only to be exercised vis-a-vis technical institutions, as defined in the Act and not generally," the judgment said. The power to grant approval for starting new technical institutions and introduction of new courses in consultation with the agencies is covered under by section 10(k), which would not cover a 'university' but only a technical institution.

The bench held that "the decision of Andhra Pradesh High Court in 'Sambasiva Rao's case' cannot also be considered to lay down the correct position of the law, as declared by us". SC was mentioning the 'Sambasiva Rao's case' (1997) where it was declared that anybody or everyone of the authorities and institutions concerned with the 'technical education' all over the country would fall within the meaning of 'technical institution' as defined in Section 2(h) of the AICTE Act and should bound its regulations.