Haryana transfers Rewari SP; victim's family rejects compensation
Rewari gang rape case
Chandigarh, Sep 16 : Embarrassed over the failure to arrest those involved in the alleged gang-rape of a board topper, the Haryana government on Sunday ordered the transfer of Rewari's Superintendent of Police (SP) and replaced him with another officer.
Rahul Sharma has been posted as the new SP of Rewari in place of Rajesh Duggal.
The police arrested Deendayal, the owner of the tubewell room where the gang-rape took place in Mahendragarh district. Police said he gave the keys of the room to the accused youth where they committed the crime on September 12.
The police have also detained a medical practitioner who was called by the accused when the condition of the 19-year-old rape victim deteriorated after she had been sexually assaulted.
Police officials said the medical practitioner gave the victim first aid treatment. He did not inform the police though he knew that the victim was sexually assaulted claiming that he was threatened by the accused.
The Haryana Police has faced flak for treating the gang-rape incident casually initially by citing jurisdiction issues, losing crucial time and evidence to nab the accused.
In a related development, the family of the gang-rape victim on Sunday rejected the compensation cheque of Rs 2 lakh sent by the Haryana government.
"Is this the value that the Haryana government has calculated for the gruesome crime committed on my daughter? We reject the compensation offered. We want justice for our daughter," the mother of the victim said in Rewari, nearly 350 km from here.
The Haryana Police on Sunday continued the hunt for the rapists. Police sources said on Sunday that raids were being conducted at various locations to arrest the three accused involved in the crime.
The police were questioning relatives, friends and fellow villagers of the accused to know their whereabouts. Nearly 100 people have been questioned.
Special Investigating Team (SIT) chief Nazneen Bhasin told the media in Rewari that the rape of the young woman had been confirmed in the medical examination.
She said that anyone giving information about the accused would get a reward of Rs 1 lakh. The accused include a soldier, Pankaj, and two youths, Manish and Nishu. All belong to Kanina village.
Despite Haryana Director General of Police B.S. Sandhu claiming that the accused would be arrested, the police have failed to do so.
The victim, who has identified her attackers, and her parents had said earlier that the police were not taking action in the matter and were dealing with it casually.
The family alleged that more men could be involved in the gang-rape.
The accused, who belong to the same village as the victim and knew her, allegedly kidnapped the victim from Kanina bus stand while she was on her way for coaching classes.
She said they gave her water to drink which was laced with a sedative. They then took turns raping her in a room adjoining agricultural fields till she fell unconscious.They later dumped her at a bus stop near the village.
One accused, Manish, even called up the victim's father and told him to pick her from the bus stand. The victim, a second year student in a college, topped the board examination and was felicitated by the government.
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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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