IIIT Laws (Amendment) Bill 2020 passed in Rajya Sabha

The government has today passed the IIIT bill in the Rajya Sabha. With this bill, now the institutions will have the right to legally issue diploma, degree, doctorate and more.

The government today passed the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IITs) bill in the Rajya Sabha, declaring five newly established IIITs as institutions of National Importance. These IIITs have been set up as Public-Private Partnership, PPP and are located in Surat, Bhopal, Bhagalpur, Agartala, and Raichur.

The Indian Institutes of Information Technology Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020 was passed by Lok Sabha in the previous session on March 20, 2020. The bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha or Upper House on September 21, 2020, by the Minister of Education,  Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

Out of the 25 IIITs in the country, five are being run by the central government and 15 IIITs are operating under public-private partnership mode.

Dr Pokhariyal said, "we have brought the proposal before this House to bring five new operational institutes which are located and have started operations in Surat (Gujarat), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Bhagalpur (Bihar), Agartala (Tripura) and Raichur (Karnataka) to bring under this acts.”

The Education Minister further stated that bringing these five new institutes under IIITs Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020 will help in turning them into an institute of national importance and they will then have the right to legally issue diploma, degree, doctorate and more.

“These 5 IIITs along with 15 other IIITs, which are also built on public-private partnership mode would now be able to use the nomenclature of Bachelor of Technology, BTech or Master of Technology, MTech or PhD degree,” the minister said.

"This step would let many students access the institute that is essential to develop a strong research base in the country in the sector of information technology, IT. "I support his bill on behalf of my party Biju Janta Dal," Patra said in Rajya Sabha seconding the bill.

The bill leads to amendment in the Indian Institutes of Information Technology Act, 2014 and the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Public-Private Partnership) Act, 2017. At present, the institutes are registered as Societies under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 and not have no right  to grant degrees or diplomas.

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