BANGALORE: The tussle between the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and the Council of Architecture (CoA) over the control of architectural education in the country came to an end in the state.
The Principal Secretary for Higher Education H Siddaiah wrote to all major technical institutions in the state including Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association and enclosed the legal opinion from AICTE with the letter.
The letter states, “Technical institutions desirous of conducting architectural courses in the state of Karnataka are required to get AICTE approval in accordance with the Regulation and Approval Process Handbook of AICTE.”
This was the result of a clarification sent to the Principal Secretary by AICTE Director (Planning and Co-ordination) Dr Y P S Berwal in February this year. It states, “It is to inform you that the approval of AICTE is required for architectural courses under its Regulation of 2010. Therefore, unless there is any order passed by any court in Karnataka specifically holding the AICTE approval is not required for conducting Architectural courses (no such order of Karnataka High Court has been brought to AICTE notice), the technical institutions in the state are to have approval of AICTE.”
The battle between AICTE and CoA to control B Arch courses began in 2003. The AICTE is a statutory body for the development and regulation of technical education in the country. The CoA was formulated under the Architects Act, 1972 to regulate the profession of architects.
To further strengthen its stand, AICTE sought legal opinion from Supreme Court advocate Amitesh Kumar. “The architecture education is to be governed under AICTE Act and the CoA should maintain a register for the recognition of architects who have completed full-time programmes as approved by AICTE or qualifications mentioned in the schedule of CoA Act,” stated Kumar.
He added that the HRD Ministry stated that all aspects of architectural education shall be AICTE’s concern. “The CoA would look into the architect profession and its ethics for maintaining professionalism in the field,” he added.