Architecture colleges in the city are up in arms against the University of Mumbai after they have been told to pay a penalty of '10 lakh as they started offering courses without getting the requisite permissions from various authorities. The colleges have maintained that if they were guilty of flouting norms, the University should not have conducted exams and given degrees to its students in the first place. The colleges have contended that while they have the permissions from the state government, council of architecture and the University itself, there is no ground for the University to demand a penalty in retrospective effect. In 2008, the University had asked colleges that had completed one batch of students till graduation to pay up all the fees collected by the college till then. However, after the colleges appealed to the authorities that demand was set aside. The reason for the University asking the colleges to pay up the fees was as they had not got the commencement documents and had started offering the courses. “The issue was not about not adhering to the norms, but because of the lethargy of the University architecture colleges had not got the affiliation. The colleges had both the Council of Architecture and state government permissions, hence the University had to back down from its demand,” said a senior university official. “The colleges have complained that they have not been given a proper explanation as to why the said amount has to be paid. The issue is with the pro-vice-chancellor,” said the official. When contacted, Dr Naresh Chandra, pro-vice-chancellor, Mumbai University said, “I will have to look into the issue before commenting on it.”
