Supreme Court refuses to intervene in UGC-DU row over four-year undergraduate programme

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today refused to intervene in the UGC-Delhi University row over the four-year undergraduate programme(FYUP) and directed a DU professor who challenged the Commission's direction for scrapping the course to approach Delhi High Court.

A bench of justices Vikramajit Sen and S K Singh asked Prof Aditya Narayan Mishra to go to High Court against the direction issued by the UGC to DU against the controversial FYUP which was introduced from last academic session.

"Please go to High Court. The High Court would consider the matter and we would also have benefit of the reasoning of HC on the issue (when the matter comes before SC)," the bench said.

Mishra, an ex-DUTA ( Delhi University Teachers' Association) President and an Assistant Professor at Aurbindo College, submitted in his plea that FYUP is valid and ordinance brought by the University regarding this is consistent with the University Grants Commission(UGC) guidelines.

A year after the programme was introduced, DU and the UGC are at loggerheads over the course and a group of DU teachers today went on a 24-hour long hunger strike to protest against the Commission's order for its roll back.

The UGC had issued directions both to DU and all 64 colleges under it to conduct admission under the three-year under-graduate programme and not under the four-year UG programme implemented by the varsity last year.

UGC had warned DU and its colleges of "consequences" if they failed to implement the Commission's direction.