CHANDIGARH: A few months after the Council of Architecture (COA) said that it had cancelled recognition to the Sector 12-based Chandigarh College of Architecture (CCA) over its refusal to allow officials to inspect the college, the committee formed by the council is again ready to conduct an inspection of the college on August 22. The high-powered committee that will visit the college on Friday includes Prakash Deshmukh, president of the Indian Institute of Architects; Alok Ranjan, dean at NIT, Jaipur; and Rajiv Mishra, principal of the Mumbai-based JJ College of Architecture.

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Earlier, a refusal to pay charges and allow members to inspect the premises had landed the college in a controversy, with the UT administration having to step in to pacify the angry council. While the college had maintained that the 'de-recognition' did not affect its academic process, and the COA didn't have the authority to disallow admissions to the college, the COA had said it wouldn't recognize architects from such a college.

In 2012, the college did not allow a member sent by the COA to conduct a surprise check, leading to a string of controversies.

On 17-Apr-2014, at 15:39, Architexturez Imprints <[email protected]> wrote:

A number of letters exchanged between COA, CCA and the central education department, accessed by the Hindustan Times, indicate the regulatory body and the college has been at loggerheads on various issues for over six years now.

The letters suggest trouble began brewing in 2008 when the COA, after an inspection, pointed out, among other things, the college was short-staffed and accorded it a year’s extension to complete its admission process.

While the college has since maintained the next inspection could be conducted in 2013 according to COA norms, the latter contends the college has been refusing to facilitate an inspection as a follow-up of the 2008 exercise to check if it has complied with the regulatory body’s instructions.