New Delhi, November 3: A long run controversy finally has got an end as Supreme Court today ruled that technical education cannot be provided through correspondence courses. In case of technical courses like engineering, educational institutions cannot give distance education, as per the judgment. The judgment is in the line with Punjab and Haryana court decision.

The judgment says the engineering degrees granted between 2001 and 2005 to all graduates through distance learning by JRN Rajasthan Vidyapeeth, Rajasthan (JRN); Institute of Advanced Studies in Education, Rajasthan (IASE); Allahabad Agricultural Institute, Allahabad; and Vinayak Mission Research Foundation (VMRF), Tamil Nadu.

“We restrain all deemed to be universities to carry on any courses in the distance education mode from the academic session 2018-2019 onwards unless and until it is permissible to conduct such courses in distance education mode and specific permissions are granted by the concerned statutory/regulatory authorities in respect of each of those courses and unless the off-campus centres/study centres are individually inspected and found adequate by the concerned statutory authorities,” the court said.