Telangana High Court has directed the State government to consider the request of Kamala Nehru Polytechnic for Women to release the grant-in-aid to continue some diploma courses which were planned to be discontinued.
A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili, delivering verdict in a PIL petition, directed the government to take an appropriate decision in the matter sympathetically within 45 days. The bench said the All India Council for Technical Education should also take an appropriate decision based on the State government’s response on the matter.
Child rights activist Shantha Sinha, who filed the PIL plea, sought a direction to set aside the government’s decision to do away with five diploma courses being offered by the college. Vasudha Nagaraj, counsel for the petitioner, contended that the college was offering diploma courses to girl students. These courses would help the students find jobs and continuation of the same was in the lager interest of the public, she argued.
The college was an old institution offering various diploma courses to girl students at subsidised charges, she said. In April last year, the government decided to shut the courses following a letter from the college principal as the grant-in-aid was not being released.
The government counsel said the government would consider request of the institution to continue the courses and release the grant-in-aid as it was catering to the needs of girls from weaker sections of the society.
