Deemed varsity engg degrees without AICTE nod invalid: Madras HC

Chennai: Engineering degrees obtained from deemed-to-be universities during a period without AICTE approval are not valid, the Madras high court said. Approval is mandatory for technical courses, and benefits based on unapproved degrees cannot be sustained, the court added.A division bench of Justice S M Subramaniam and Justice K Surender passed the order on a review application moved by the Tamil Nadu Transport Corporation (Villupuram) Ltd seeking review of an order passed by the court dated June 25, 2025.The issue pertains to pleas moved by three employees of the corporation seeking to include their names in the seniority list of assistant engineers, taking into consideration their BE degree certificates. The court allowed the petitions, and an appeal moved by the corporation was also dismissed.Aggrieved, the corporation moved the present review and pointed out that the court failed to notice that recognition/approval of AICTE for technical courses is mandatory and, in the present case, the BE degrees obtained by the employees admittedly were not approved by AICTE during the academic years in which they completed the degree.The employees opposed the plea and contended that no such approval is required for degrees obtained through deemed-to-be universities.The university, through communication, admitted the fact that it did not obtain any approval from AICTE to conduct a BE (Mechanical) engineering course from the academic year 2002 onwards till 2017.Recording the submissions, the bench held that, therefore, the degrees obtained by the employees cannot be construed as valid degrees in view of the authoritative pronouncement of the Supreme Court in the Odisha case, which deals with the issue, and allowed the review application.
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