SC orders DIU to be shut down

A four-member bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha passed the order on Wednesday, rejecting a leave-to-appeal petition the university authorities filed challenging the HC verdict. The bench, however, said the DIU entrepreneurs could start a university with a new name, but the name Darul Ihsan University will no longer be allowed to reuse by any university authorities, said University Grants Commission (UGC) counsel ABM Bayezid. In his reaction Attorney General Mahbubey Alam said: “This verdict is a message to other private universities too. Nobody will be allowed to do business in the name of education.” Earlier, the HC on April 13 last year declared the academic activities of the private university illegal after hearing 12 writ petitions filed by a group of people and students in different times. The HC then also directed a former deputy director of the UGC and a senior assistant secretary of the education ministry to deposit Tk5 lakh each to the state fund as compensation. Complying with the verdict, the government ordered closure of the university in July the same year. Afterwards, the UIU authorities moved the apex court against the HC order. In 2010, the government formed a judicial body to probe the allegations of ownership dispute, certificate trade and other irregularities in the university, including running outer campuses without approval by the UGC. Three years later, the probe body submitted a report and recommended shutting down of the university. One of the two websites of the university claims DIU, established in 1989 under the Darul Ihsan Trust, to be the country's first private university. It received formal approval under the Private University Act 1992 from the government in 1993, according to the website which says late Professor Syed Ali Ashraf was the university's founding vice-chancellor, and it has only one outer campus in Mirpur. However, the other website contains information on 29 outer campuses despite recognising Prof Ashraf as its founder.   [YUMPU epaper_id="113" width="512" height="384"]