Dnyaneshwar Vidyapeeth Trust (DVT) is former open university in Pune, Maharashtra. It was founded by Dr. M. D. Apte in 1980 and registered as "Educational Trust". under the Registration of Societies Act, 1860 and a Public Trust registered under the Bombay Public Trust Act, 1960. It is not a university under UGC act. The Bombay High court had in a 2005 order, said that Dnyaneshwar Vidyapeeth does not have any rights to award degrees, and that the degrees issued even before 2005 were invalid.

Manohar Joshi Manohar Gaju Joshi (born 2 December 1937) is a prominent politician from the state of Maharashtra. He was the Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 1995 to 1999 and Speaker of the Lok Sabha from 2002 to 2004. He is one of the prominent leaders ...

was chancellor of the organisation in 2003 but later the post of chancellor was abolished. DVT used to run 33 franchises colleges across Maharashtra and Karnataka and offered diploma and degree courses in engineering. Nearly 5,000 students enrolled every year at annual fees from Rs 22,000 to Rs 25,000. It ceased operations after a High Court order following a

public interest litigation The chief instrument through which judicial activism has flourished in India is public interest litigation (PIL) or social action litigation (SAL). ''Public interest litigation'' (PIL) refers to litigation undertaken to secure public interest and de ...

(PIL).

Controversy

In 2015, then Maharashtra Education Minister

Vinod Tawde Vinod Sridhar Tawde (Marathi pronunciation: �inoːd̪ t̪aːʋɖeː born 20 July 1963) is an Indian politician from Maharashtra and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was the General Secretary for Maharashtra unit of the ...

's name came in the limelight concerning an unrecognised engineering degree obtained from DVT. Similarly, in 2020, Maharashtra Higher Education Minister

Uday Samant Uday Samant is an Indian politician and leader of Shiv Sena from Maharashtra. He is Cabinet Minister of Ministry of Industries (Maharashtra). He is current Member of Legislative Assembly from Ratnagiri. He has been elected to Vidhan Sabha for ...

's degree from the unrecognised institute called into question.

References

{{reflist Education in Pune Unaccredited institutions of higher learning in India