Udupi DC seen attending wedding event without mask, people demand suspension as photo goes viral
Udupi: A photo showing Udupi Deputy Commissioner N Jagadish, attending a Mehendi event of Udupi’s Additional SP’s daughter without wearing a mask has gone viral across social media platforms with people outraging over the negligence of the officer and for violating the COVID-19 guidelines.
According to the reports the wedding ceremony was scheduled to be held on April 25 while the Mehendi event was organized on April 23 evening. The District Commissioner had reportedly attended the event along with his family. The DC and the District’s Additional SP were seen in a photo standing next to the would-be bride on the stage, without maintaining appropriate social distance and without a mask.
People on social networking slammed the DC for attending the event and not following COVID protocols. They also added that there was no reference to the ‘Mehendi ceremony’ in the guidelines issued by the state government while for the wedding event only 50 people were allowed to attend and the Mehendi event as such was not permitted to be held. Despite that, instead of stopping the Mehendi event that is not cited in the guideline, the DC has erred by participating in the event, people opined.
Apart from that a video of the event has surfaced on social media and has gone viral showing hundreds of people participating in the event, while a team of dancers was seen escorting the bride in a procession.
In a recent incident, the DC had earned the ire of the netizens for forcing female students who were standing and traveling back home in a bus at Santhekatte, and now he has embraced another controversy.
There is a growing call to suspend the DC on various social media sites in this regard. Hashtag Campaigns against the DC have been reportedly organized on Twitter.
Demands to Suspend DC
“Without maintaining any social distancing or even wearing any mask, look at him standing with a smile at the Mehendi event of police official’s daughter. Law, punishment, reproach, beating is all only for the common people, isn’t it Mr. District Commissioner? Usurp DC Jagadish, shame on you. By the way, in the pass list of wedding guests who provided Aadhar card, was the District Commissioner’s name present? DC Saheb must definitely provide an answer”, progressive thinker Shashidhar Hemmadi posted on Facebook.
“The District Commissioner has committed severe omission of duty by violating guidelines and participating in the Mehendi function. He, violating the rules that were devised by him is disgraceful. The government must review this seriously. A proper inquiry must be conducted. If the issue proves to be true, District Commissioner Jagadish must be immediately suspended”, demanded DYFI Leader Muneer Kaatipalla demanded in a Facebook post.
DC issues clarification:
Jagadish later clarified that the event was a private and family event organized at the house of Additional SP and not at a public place. He clarified that people are bound to wear masks only in public places and not in private spaces. He added that the Mehendi event was a private event and only people of four families had attended the event.
He also added that he attended the event for less than 10 minutes and at the request of the bride he took off the mask for photography on the stage. He clarified that he checked in into the event at 8:40 on Friday and checked out before the weekend curfew was imposed.
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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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