Background: why this RTI was filed
Section 2(f) of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956 is the quiet foundation under a great deal of Indian higher education. A body listed there is a “university” for the purposes of the Act. Employers rely on the list; foreign credential evaluators consult it; students who have never heard of it depend on it entirely. Removal from that list is among the most serious administrative steps the UGC can take against an institution that continues to operate.
The Commission's supervisory power over private universities rests on inspection, and inspection rests on information. A university that does not reply cannot be inspected. Non-cooperation is not a technicality; it is the mechanism by which oversight fails.
This record is a show cause notice — not an RTI reply — issued by the UGC to the Vice Chancellor of Sangai International University at Churachandpur in Manipur. It carries reference No. F. 8-19/2015 (CPP-I/PU), is dated December 2023 and bears an office stamp of 19 December 2023. It was issued by Speed Post and e-mail, and signed by the Deputy Secretary and an Under Secretary of the Commission.
| Document | UGC Show Cause Notice |
| Reference | No. F. 8-19/2015 (CPP-I/PU) |
| Dated | December 2023; stamped 19 DEC 2023 |
| Issued by | University Grants Commission, New Delhi |
| Signed by | (Monika), Deputy Secretary; (R.I.S Bhardwaj), Under Secretary |
| Addressed to | Vice Chancellor, Sangai International University, Churachandpur, Manipur |
| Statutory basis | UGC Act, 1956 with the Private Universities Regulations, 2003 |
| Pages | 1 |
A paper trail with one side missing
The notice opens by listing what came before it. Five UGC letters “of even number” — that is, under the same file reference — dated 3 July 2015, 12 August 2015, 21 October 2016, 1 March 2019 and 11 January 2021. Copies of all five were enclosed with the notice.
Each had requested information for inspection purposes. The notice then states the position in two sentences that carry the weight of the document: “The required information is pending since 2015. In spite of repeated written communications, the University has failed to submit the required information.”
The spacing of the letters is itself telling. Two in 2015, then a gap of fourteen months, then a gap of nearly two and a half years, then a gap of almost two more. This was not a burst of correspondence that could be lost in a mailroom. It was a request renewed periodically across three separate presidencies of the Commission, and it produced nothing.
What the UGC proposed to do
The second paragraph shifts from recital to consequence. Acting under the UGC Act, 1956 read with the UGC (Establishment of and Maintenance of Standards in Private Universities) Regulations, 2003, the Commission gave the university 15 days from the date of issue to show cause “as to why action against the university be not taken by the UGC to remove its name from the list of Universities as maintained by the UGC under Section 2(f) of the UGC Act, 1956”.
It is worth being precise about what this is and is not. A show cause notice is a procedural step that precedes a decision; it exists so that the institution can answer before anything is done. Nothing in this document removes the university from anything. What it establishes is that, as at December 2023, the UGC considered removal a live option and had placed the burden on the university to explain why it should not happen.
The notice closes with a formula that indicates it was not a routine clerical reminder: “This is issued with the approval of Competent Authority.”
The state government is drawn in
The endorsement at the foot of the notice is easy to overlook and should not be. A copy went to the Principal Secretary of the Department of Higher Education, Government of Manipur, at the New Secretariat in Imphal, with two email addresses given — and with a parenthetical instruction: “(with the request to take immediate action and send comments urgently)”.
Private universities in India are created by state legislation. The UGC lists them; the state government establishes them and, in practice, is the authority closest to the institution. By asking Manipur's higher education department for immediate action and urgent comments, the Commission was signalling that the matter had moved beyond correspondence between two offices in New Delhi and Churachandpur.
What the university replied, and what the UGC decided afterwards, is not in this document. That is the limit of what this record can tell anyone.
Key findings
Information pending since 2015
The UGC states the information it required for inspection purposes has been outstanding for more than eight years at the date of the notice.
Five written communications, no submission
Letters of 03.07.2015, 12.08.2015, 21.10.2016, 01.03.2019 and 11.01.2021 are listed as enclosed. The notice states the university failed to submit the required information in spite of them.
Removal from the Section 2(f) list proposed
The notice asks the university to show cause why the UGC should not act to remove its name from the list of universities it maintains under Section 2(f) of the UGC Act, 1956.
Fifteen days to respond
The opportunity to show cause is limited to 15 days from the date of issue of the notice.
State government asked to act immediately
The Manipur Department of Higher Education was endorsed a copy with a request to take immediate action and send comments urgently.
No inspection has been completed
Because the information was never supplied, the inspection the UGC sought to carry out could not proceed. The notice records a failure to cooperate, not the result of an inspection.
“The required information is pending since 2015. In spite of repeated written communications, the University has failed to submit the required information.”
— UGC Show Cause Notice F. 8-19/2015 (CPP-I/PU), December 2023
What employers and students should know
Employers and screening agencies should treat this notice as a reason to check the university's current status rather than as a verdict. The document does not say any degree is invalid. It does say that as at December 2023 the UGC was considering removal from the Section 2(f) list. Before accepting a credential from this institution, confirm its present listing with the UGC directly and verify the specific degree with the university.
Current and prospective students have the most at stake and the least information. An institution that has not answered its regulator since 2015 is an institution whose standing could change while a student is enrolled in it. Anyone considering admission should ask the university, in writing, what its response to this notice was and what the outcome has been, and should ask the Manipur Department of Higher Education the same question.
Existing graduates should obtain written verification of their degrees from the university now rather than later. Verification becomes markedly harder if an institution's administrative position deteriorates.
- Check the UGC's current list of universities under Section 2(f) before relying on any credential from this institution.
- Write to the Vice Chancellor, Sangai International University, Churachandpur - 795128, Manipur, asking for the university's response to notice F. 8-19/2015 (CPP-I/PU) and the outcome.
- Write to the Principal Secretary, Department of Higher Education, Government of Manipur, who was endorsed a copy of this notice and asked to comment urgently.
- Graduates: obtain a written degree verification letter from the university and keep it with your certificates.
- Prospective students: do not pay an admission fee until the institution's current UGC listing has been confirmed in writing.
What this record shows:
- The UGC issued a show cause notice to Sangai International University, Churachandpur, Manipur, in December 2023.
- Information requested for inspection purposes had been pending since 2015, across five listed letters.
- The UGC proposed to consider removing the university's name from the list maintained under Section 2(f) of the UGC Act, 1956.
- The Manipur Department of Higher Education was asked to take immediate action and send comments urgently.
What it does not show:
- It does not state that the university has been removed from the Section 2(f) list. It is a notice proposing that action and inviting a response.
- It does not state that any Sangai International University degree is invalid, fake or wrongly issued.
- It does not record any finding about the university's academic standards, infrastructure or students — the inspection it relates to never took place.
- It does not show what the university replied, or what the UGC decided afterwards. Readers should check the UGC's current list before drawing any conclusion.
Every statement on this page is drawn from the official document described above. Readers should rely on the original document and the issuing authority for any decision.