Chandigarh, February 17 The Al Falah Charitable Trust and Al Falah University, Faridabad, have filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the constitutional validity of the Haryana Private Universities (Amendment) Act, 2025.
The Haryana Assembly passed the Haryana Private Universities (Amendment) Bill in December last year, which includes provisions for dissolving the management body of a private university and taking over its functioning through the appointment of an administrator under "certain circumstances", including matters related to national security.
Referring to the newly introduced Sections 44 B and 46 of the amended Act, the petition states that the state government has been granted "unfettered power to take over the management and control of a private university under the guise of an administrator" appointed by the state government under the pretext of "any grave lapse", including national security, public security, law and order, etc.
The Bill was brought by the BJP government in the wake of a "white-collar" terror module that was busted by the Jammu and Kashmir Police along with their counterparts in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. This led investigators to Al Falah University in Faridabad, as some of its faculty were linked to the blast near Delhi's Red Fort on November 10, which killed 15 people.
The petition came up before the high court on Monday, and the next hearing date has been fixed for April 6.
The petition also referred to certain provisions of the amended Act and argued that "if normalcy has been restored in the university and despite that the state continues to assume control of the university by appointing its own functionaries thereby dissolving and converting the nature of a private university, which is in complete violation of Article 30 of the Constitution of India, as is in the present case".
It has challenged the classification as "manifestly arbitrary and much in the teeth of the principles of reasonableness, forming the cornerstone of protection against encroachment of rights enshrined under Article 14".
Four faculty members of Al Falah University were allegedly linked to the bomb blast in Delhi.
According to the petition, Al Falah University took immediate action and terminated the services of all four and fully cooperated with the investigating agencies.
The petitioner received a letter under Section 46 of the amended Act, informing that an inquiry was being initiated against the university and inquiry officers had been appointed by the state government.
The state issued an inquiry notice seeking to inspect the campus on January 16 under the new law.
Al Falah University, a minority educational institution, said that the amended provisions grant "unfettered, arbitrary power to the state government to take over the complete and absolute control and administration of any private university for perpetuity" and thereby completely dissolve the very nature of the said university and further usurp the control and management of the institution including private property owned by such private institution/ university.