The proposed educational tribunals Bill, 2010, which aims to set up educational tribunals to adjudicate disputes in the higher education space, will have all the powers and jurisdiction of civil courts which would help them to expeditiously resolve disputes involving teachers, students and institutions.
The Bill allows the government to establish tribunals at the state and national level that would help it to speedily adjudicate disputes involving all stakeholders namely teachers, students and statutory regulatory authorities of the higher educational institutions.
“An order made by every state educational tribunal and the national educational tribunal, shall be executable as a decree of a civil court, and for this purpose, the state educational tribunal and the national educational tribunal shall have all the powers of a civil court,? says the Bill.
While state tribunals will deal with matters concerning teachers, employees and students of institutions in the respective states, the national tribunal will deal with matters concerning regulatory bodies in higher education and disputes between higher educational institutions. The former will comprise three members and the latter, nine members. The Bill was passed last year in the Lok Sabha but awaits clearance from the Rajya Sabha. Moreover, it has provisions for imposing penalties on offenders which may range from imprisonment for three years to fine upto R10 lakh. ?The tribunal only curtails the period of dispute from 10-12 years in a civil court to a few months. However, the recourse of going to the high court is still there. The Bill doesn’t bar it,? a HRD ministry official said.
The state educational tribunal will have powers and authority in relation to service matters of a teacher or an employee and affiliation of any higher educational institution. The national educational tribunal will have powers and authority regarding disputes between any higher educational institution and any appropriate statutory regulatory authority.
?The bill does not challenge the autonomy of the institutions and will be an option only after all remedies of the respective institution are provided for. The institutes have to go to their own appellate authorities and get a final order before approaching the tribunal,?the official added.
