No Shifting of RGUHS new campus: Karnataka HC interim order

Bengaluru: The Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), Bengaluru’s impending shift has been stalled by the Karnataka High Court. The court has passed an interim order directing for maintenance of status quo, with regards to the shift of the university, to its new Ramanagaram campus, 50 km away from the old one.

“The departments which have already been shifted can continue to work from Ramanagara. But any other work related to the shifting of the university can be undertaken only with the permission of the court ”Justice Vineet Kothari has observed in his order. Justice Kothari was responding to a bunch of petitions filed against the impending shift. The next hearing on the matter is June 4.

These petitions being addressed have been filed by Padmashree Institute of Public Health and other institutions and individuals.

The petitioning bodies have alleged that the authority's sole intention and the objective is to make wrongful profits from the university funds, and the shift to the Ramanagram premises is an attempt to cover their own ill intentions.

The petitioners have contended that they have no right to the RGUHS funds, as they have been accrued through institutional and student payments. The government they allege is now in a devious manner trying to get the University to pay for the Rs 520 cr project.

“The tortuous aim is to force the University into paying for construction of a new building and campus, a project worth approximately Rs 520 crores and arm twisting the University into additionally building a hospital etc. with absolutely no contribution from the government, whereby the government would unscrupulously choose the builder, allot works contract, gain from a free hospital, all from the funds of RGUHS which is directly the fee paid by all the students to RGUHS” , the petition states while seeking court direction for the quashing of the court order dated February 8, 2017 for campus shift, reports TOI.