House panel on Viksit Bharat bill to meet on September 11

New Delhi: A Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) will resume discussions on the controversial Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhisthan (VBSA) Bill, 2025, after a gap of more than a month, with the panel set to hear views of experts from Himachal Pradesh on September 11.

The move comes after the committee’s draft report on the legislation was not adopted during the monsoon session as lawmakers across party lines sought further discussions on the Bill.

The 31-member panel, headed by BJP lawmaker and former Union minister D Purandeswari, has scheduled two meetings on September 11. According to the Lok Sabha portal, it will hear the views of the secretary, higher education, Himachal Pradesh government; the vice-chancellors of Central University of Himachal Pradesh and Sardar Patel University, Mandi; the director of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Sirmaur and the vice-chancellor of Himachal Pradesh Technical University.

The committee last met on August 3 for “internal deliberations”. It had planned to adopt the draft report on July 7 and 8, but the report could not be tabled during the monsoon session.

The panel has so far held 24 meetings, including three on July 7 and 8, for clause-by-clause consideration of the Bill.

The VBSA Bill, introduced in Parliament in December 2025, seeks to replace the UGC, AICTE and NCTE with a 12-member commission overseeing separate councils for regulation, standards and accreditation under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 framework. Following objections from several MPs, the Bill was referred to the parliamentary committee on December 16.

The government’s decision to slow down the legislation was hailed by Opposition parties as a success. At a press conference after the monsoon session ended on August 13, Congress general secretary for communications Jairam Ramesh had said “stalling the Bill was one of the Opposition’s five achievements.”

Earlier in May, HT reported that leading higher education institutions had urged the panel to strengthen safeguards for institutional autonomy, increase state representation and adopt a phased rollout, warning that some provisions could effectively subordinate the regulator to the executive and trigger Centre-State friction.