Under the AICTE Act and its subsequent Regulations, Universities established under a State or Central Act in accordance with Section 2(f) and 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, do not require AICTE approval. However, the Universities are only required to maintain AICTE norms and standards and require no prior approval of AICTE for starting Technical & Professional courses.
This has also been clarified by the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s judgment in the case of Bharathidasan University v/s AICTE wherein the Court had ruled that:
“it is not mandatory for a University, created under an Act, to seek & secure prior approval of the AICTE to start a department for imparting a course or program in technical education or a technical institution as an adjunct to the University itself to conduct technical courses of its choice & selection. The Bench also said that the definition of technical institution excludes from its purview a university, and when by definition a university is excluded from a technical institution, to interpret that such a clause or such an expression, wherever the expression technical institution occurs, will include a university will be reading into the Act what is not provided therein”