Kochi: The High Court has instructed the secretary of the higher education department to issue an order allowing other universities to conduct courses on the distance education mode if the University Grants Commission doesn’t give approval to the Sree Narayana Guru Open University. Justice Devan Ramachandran said that the order must be issued before 26 August.

The High Court was considering the pleas filed by a group of students who wish to seek admission for distance education courses at various universities. The petitioners noted that the state government had barred all universities, except SNGOU, from conducting courses on the distance mode. In the suit, the petitioners prayed to cancel the government order.

The court said that the order wouldn’t hurt the prospects of the petitioners if the university doesn’t get UGC’s approval. In that case, other universities can conduct their distance education programs.

The court said that the secretary of higher education should take an appropriate decision after listening to the petitioners and the representatives of the open university. The secretary has been instructed to listen to both the parties at 11 am on 23 August. The High Court asked the secretary to issue order allowing other universities to conduct distance courses as the representatives of the open university couldn’t present documents of approval from the UGC. Meanwhile, the court added that in case the open university gets approval to conduct any course, the secretary should allow the rest of the universities to conduct courses in other subjects.