Sanjiv Bhatt, retired Inspector sent in police remanded for 10 days
Ahmedabad, Sep 11 : The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday accepted the state government's plea for police remand of arrested former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt and sent him and a retired police officer in 10-day police custody.
Justice R.P. Dholariya allowed the state's plea and granted 10-day remand of Bhatt and retired Inspector I.B. Vyas.
Bhatt and Vyas were arrested by the CID-Crime Branch last week on the charge of framing a lawyer from Rajasthan, Sumersingh Rajpurohit, under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act after allegedly planting 1.25 kg opium in a hotel room in Palanpur in Banaskantha district in 1996.
The CID-Crime is re-investigating the case after the High Court orders in April.
Rajpurohit had alleged that he was framed by Bhatt at the behest of former High Court Judge R.R. Jain in connection with a property dispute. Bhatt, a 1988-batch IPS officer, was dismissed from service in 2015 for "unauthorised absence from duty."
Following their arrest last week, the CID-Crime had sought the two officers' custody for 14 days which was rejected by a magisterial court. The CID-Crime then challenged the order in the High Court.
On Monday, Bhatt's counsel I.H. Syed had contested the remand revision plea of the state, and submitted before the High Court that the government action was contrary to its stand in the Supreme Court in the same case when it had defended him.
Syed pointed out that Rajpurohit had already got an FIR registered in Rajasthan against Bhatt, Vyas and several other Gujarat police officers in November 1996.
"In that case, I (Bhatt) have been bailed out and a charge sheet already filed by Rajasthan Police. That charge sheet has been challenged by the Gujarat government in the Supreme Court and the same has been stayed by the apex court since May 2000."
"So, I cannot be subjected to an investigation for the same incident twice. Rajasthan Police has already investigated that incident," Syed contended.
Bhatt's counsel added that "the fact that the apex court stayed the charge sheet filed by Rajasthan Police was concealed before the Gujarat High Court when it ordered further probe in the Palanpur case (in April)."
However, the High Court rejected his submissions.
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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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