UGC REGULATIONS IN THE INDIAN FEDERATION: ISSUES AND COMPLEXITIES

Dwelling on K. C. Wheare’s theoretical enunciation
that India is a quasi-federation, this paper explores the division of
power between the Union and the States and demonstrates that in
the field of education, it is the Union Government that occupies
a dominant position, imposing its policies on the States due to
the application of repugnancy principle, given the inclusion of
education in the Concurrent List of the Seventh Schedule of
the Indian Constitution. One of the instruments of imposition
of the Union Government on the States in the field of Higher
Education has been the regulations adopted by the University
Grants Commission from time to time. However, this results in
confrontations between the Union Government and the States,
especially those ruled by the opposition parties, thereby affecting
the smooth functioning of the state-run universities.