Haryana IPS officer 'suicide' case: DGP sent on leave
Chandigarh (PTI): The Haryana government has sent State DGP Shatrujeet Kapur on leave amid opposition's attack on the BJP dispensation over IPS officer Y Puran Kumar's alleged suicide, and demand by Kumar's family for action against the officers accused of harassing him.
The late-night development came days after the state government had transferred Narendra Bijarniya, the then Rohtak's Superintendent of Police.
"Yes, the DGP has been sent on leave by the government," said Rajiv Jaitly, media adviser to the Haryana chief minister.
In an eight-page "final note," purportedly left behind by Kumar, he accused eight senior IPS officers, including Kapur and Bijarniya, of "blatant caste-based discrimination, targeted mental harassment, public humiliation and atrocities."
The IPS officer's wife, senior IAS officer Amneet P Kumar, has demanded that Kapur and Bijarniya be named in the FIR for allegedly abetting her husband's suicide.
The officer's family, which is also seeking their arrest, has refused to give consent for a post-mortem and cremation until its demands are addressed.
Fifty-two-year-old Kumar, a 2001-batch IPS officer, allegedly shot himself dead on October 7.
After the registration of an FIR, the Chandigarh Police constituted a six-member special investigation team to investigate the case.
During the past few days, many political leaders visited Kumar's family here to offer their condolences, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi scheduled for a meeting with the officer's family on Tuesday.
Union Minister Ramdas Athawale, who met the family here on Monday, said Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini has assured that action will be taken against those found guilty in the case.
The opposition has stepped up its attack on the government over the issue and is demanding action in the matter.
Telangana Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Congress MP from Rohtak, Deepender Singh Hooda, INLD chief Abhay Singh Chautala and Punjab Finance Minister and AAP leader Harpal Singh Cheema were among the leaders from opposition parties who visited the Kumars' Sector 24 residence on Monday.
Vikramarka said he came to Chandigarh to console the family members of Kumar, who hailed from the southern state. He described the alleged suicide as "extremely sad" and demanded that the government immediately act against the officers named in Kumar's "dying declaration" (final note).
"Y Puran Kumar gave up his life and in his dying declaration, he mentioned particularly about two officers, Haryana DGP Shatrujeet Kapur and the then Rohtak SP Narendra (Bijarniya), stating that they have humiliated him, insulted him, and they are the root cause for his suicide," he said.
The Congress leader demanded that the government immediately act upon Kumar's "dying declaration" and take action against the officers responsible.
Meanwhile, a 31-member committee formed to seek "justice" for the deceased officer's family on Sunday gave a 48-hour ultimatum to act against Kapur and Bijarniya.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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