Chandigarh: HC orders CAG audit of private-aided colleges

The bench of justice Sureshwar Singh Thakur and justice Sudeepti Sharma passed the order while dealing with the plea on enhancement of the retirement age of faculty of these colleges

The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has ordered a CAG audit of the seven private-aided colleges in Chandigarh to check for any financial anomalies.

Punjab and Haryana high court noted the audit of private-aided colleges may be done by the auditors as being appointed till now. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The bench of justice Sureshwar Singh Thakur and justice Sudeepti Sharma passed the order while dealing with the plea on enhancement of the retirement age of faculty of these colleges.

“(These) colleges are not shown, by any tangible evidence placed on record, to be wholly non-profiteering organisations nor is there any tangible evidence adduced on record, thus suggestive that a holistic philanthropic purpose, is the bedrock of the opening and running of these colleges. Therefore, but only for want of the above evidence, thus leads this court to form a conclusion that such colleges rather became established and are also being managed by the managements concerned, hence for a profiteering purpose,” the court said asking the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India to appoint an auditor, adding that the exercise would help in detecting any purported faults, if any, in earlier audits for which responsibility can be fixed.

It noted the audit of such colleges may be done by the auditors as being appointed till now. However, it is neither apprised to this court by the counsel for the petitioner nor by the counsel for the opposite party, that the makings of audits for the relevant purpose, thus were completely by a “non-partisan agency”. The CAG audit would ensure the correctness or otherwise of the previously made audits, and further help in finding out whether these colleges made correct financial projections while seeking grant-in-aid from the Centre. No perpetual encumbrance is cast upon the Government of India to release grants-in-aid to such colleges, it added. The court has now ordered that CAG appoint a qualified auditor to make an incisive audits of all the independent financial resources of these colleges and a report has been sought by April 30.