New Delhi: The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) will reconvene to discuss the contentious Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhisthan (VBSA) Bill, 2025, after a hiatus of over a month. The panel is scheduled to hear insights from experts in 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 government’s decision to slow down the legislation was hailed by Opposition parties as a success. The 31-member panel, headed by BJP lawmaker and former Union minister D Purandeswari, has scheduled two meetings on September 11. 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.
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, according to the Lok Sabha portal. 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.”
