VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court has instructed the Andhra Pradesh Higher Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission (APHERMC) to upload the court’s interim orders on its official website regarding the Mohan Babu University (MBU) case.
Justice K Srinivas Reddy issued these directives on Thursday while addressing a supplementary petition filed by MBU. The hearing of the main case has been adjourned to October 14.
The APHERMC had previously recommended to the State government on September 17 to revoke the recognition of Mohan Babu University, located in Rangampeta of Tirupati district. The commission also advised refunding Rs 26.17 crore allegedly over-collected from students and transferring the university’s administrative responsibilities to the Vice-Chancellor/Registrar of Sri Venkateswara University.
Challenging these recommendations, MBU’s Registrar filed a petition in the High Court to quash the APHERMC’s proceedings.
On September 26, the High Court issued interim orders staying the implementation of APHERMC’s recommendations, including the cancellation of the university’s recognition, the refund of `26.17 crore, and the transfer of administrative duties.
However, MBU raised objections, alleging that APHERMC uploaded the proceedings recommending the cancellation of its recognition on its official website, despite the court’s interim stay.
The university filed a supplementary petition, urging the court to direct APHERMC to either remove the proceedings from the website or include details of the pending writ petition and the interim orders.
During Thursday’s hearing, MBU’s senior counsel, O Manohar Reddy, argued that uploading the proceedings after the court’s interim orders damaged the university’s reputation, as the matter was widely reported in the media.
He claimed that APHERMC ignored their request to remove the proceedings and urged the court to mandate the upload of the interim orders on the website.
The court questioned APHERMC’s counsel on why the proceedings were uploaded despite the stay order.
Representing APHERMC, senior counsel P Veera Reddy clarified that the commission was complying with a prior High Court Division Bench directive to upload all proceedings on its website.
He noted that the proceedings recommending MBU’s recognition cancellation were uploaded on September 18, before the interim orders were issued, and denied any malicious intent.
The court concluded by directing APHERMC to upload the interim orders on its official website and adjourned the main case to October 14 for further hearing.
APHERMC counsel clarifies position
Representing AP Higher Education Regulatory and Monitoring Commission (APHERMC), senior counsel P Veera Reddy clarified that the commission is complying with a prior High Court Division Bench directive to upload all proceedings on on its website
