Interpretation of word “University” - Indian Laws - General

Interpretation of word University The word University is etymologically derived from the Latin, universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means community of teachers and scholars . Black s Law dictionary defines University as: An institution of higher learning, consisting of an assemblage of colleges united under one corporate organization and government, affording instruction in the arts and sciences and the learned professions. and conferring degrees. See Com. v. Banks, 198 Pa. 397. 48 Atl. 277. Law Lexicon, defines the same as: A corporation of teachers or assemblage of learned men or colleges for teaching the higher branches of learning: ;and having power to confer degrees. University. A place where all kinds of literature are universally taught. (Tomlin s Law Dic.) See also Act VIII of 1904, S.2, Cl. (2)(c). A University, of normal type, may be described in popular language as an organization of teachers and learners, settled in a fixed locality, for the purpose of nature study, in which the body of teachers has authority to attest the proficiency of the learners, by bestowing upon them titles, signifying that they also possess the qualifications and are admitted to the rank of those that are learned in the particular branch of knowledge in which they are taught. The term University is usually understood to mean a body incorporated for the purpose of learning, with various endowments and privileges. Such bodies were anciently founded by papal bull or charter, later by royal charter or act of Parliament. University is a corporation aggregateAggregation of corporationsThe corporations are usually colleges or schools. Third Edition of Halsbury 's, Volume 13, page 707, at para 1441 deals with the term Universities . According to the same: The word university is not a word of art and, although the institutions to which it refers are readily identifiable, precise definition is difficult. The essential features of a university seems to be that it was incorporated as such by the sovereign power. Other attributes of a university appear to be the admission of students from all parts of the world, a plurality of masters, the teaching of one at least of the higher faculties, namely theology, law or philosophy, which in some definitions are regarded as identical, and medicine, provision for residence, and the right to confer degrees, but possession of these attributes will not make an institution a university in the absence of any express intention of the sovereign power to make it one. Incorporation was anciently affected by papal bull or charter later by royal charter or Act of Parliament. In Words and Phrases, Permanent Edn. (West Publishing Company), the word Universities is defined as follows: Universities: Bodies politic and corporate have been known to exist as Far back at last as the time of Cicero, and Gaius traces them even to the laws of Solon of Athens, who lived some 500 years before . And from time immemorial, as at the present day, this privilege of being a corporation or artificial body of individuals, with power of holding their property, rights, and immunities in common as a legally organized body and of transmitting the same in such body by an artificial succession different from the natural succession of the property of individuals has been considered a franchise which could not be lawfully assumed by any associated body without a special authority for that purpose from the government or sovereign power. Under the UGC Act, University is defined and recognized under Section 2(f) in the following manner: University means a University established or incorporated by or under a Central Act, a Provincial Act or a State Act, and includes any such institution as may, in consultation with the University concerned, be recoginsed by the Commission in accordance with the regulations made in this behalf under this Act. [THE STATE OF GUJARAT VERSUS MANSUKHBHAI KANJIBHAI SHAH- 2020 (4) TMI 882 - SUPREME COURT]