Bangalore: According to the affidavit filed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) in the Supreme Court recently, 12,098 students studying in the six deemed universities in Karnataka , which are found to be unfit, are to retain this rank.

The Bangalore-based Christ University, which is one of those six "doomed" universities which are set to lose the "deemed" status has 7254 students pursuing courses ranging from undergraduate to PhD.

Similarly, there are 2,778 students studying undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Jain University, Bangalore. Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education, Tumkur, has 1,034 students in undergraduate and postgraduate courses including medicine, dental and engineering; Sri Devaraj Urs Academy of Higher Education and Research, Kolar, has 560 students under different medical courses; BLDE University, Bijapur, has 382 students in undergraduate, postgraduate and diploma courses; and Yenepoya University, Mangalore, has 190 students undergraduate and diploma courses in medical stream.

The Task Force set up by the HRD Ministry has however, assured the students studying in these "deemed-to-be" universities that these varsities are affiliated with the State universities and degrees shall be conferred to them upon completion of their course.

The recommendation from the committee has however been accepted by the Ministry and is now subjected to the orders of the Supreme Court.

According to the report of the Task Force, by not adhering to the norms to maintain the status of the "deemed-to-be" university, it shall have to bear the expenses involved in the transfer of these students to the jurisdictional State universities.

According to the legal experts, the only resort left for these six "deemed-to-be" universities is to implead themselves in the litigation that is pending before the Court.