Overview
- The court pulled up the Union government after it received an affidavit signed by the Higher Education Secretary rather than the Cabinet Secretary required by a November 2025 order.
- Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the filing came from the Higher Education Secretary due to the government’s working hierarchy, as the bench questioned the deviation from its directions.
- The bench issued notices to Chief Secretaries to show cause for not personally affirming filings and to those without affidavits or representation to explain why contempt should not follow, naming states including Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Odisha, Puducherry, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Delhi, and Gujarat.
- States that submitted incomplete information were allowed to file additional affidavits as the court continues a nationwide information exercise on private and deemed universities.
- The judges stressed the process is a public-interest inquiry rather than a witch-hunt, noted receipt of numerous petitions about university practices, and set the next hearing for January 28 in the case that began with a student’s harassment complaint against Amity University.