Govt digs into JJ School’s land records for ‘assets transfer’

Mumbai: The state govt is digging into 150-year-old land records of the erstwhile JJ School of Applied Arts, Fine Arts and Architecture, which is now a deemed-to-be university under the de-novo category. The reason: the new university, Sir JJ School of Art, Architecture and Design, is mandated to transfer all the movable and immovable assets of the university in the name of its sponsoring body, a section 8 company, Sir JJ School of Art, Architecture and Design Foundation.

While most of the land of the heritage campus, spread over nine acres, is in the name of JJ, the remaining, a small part, interestingly, is in the name of Sydenham College, which functioned from the JJ School of Architecture building for over 30 years before it moved to its current building. Sydenham College’s website mentioned that while the college started from the Elphinstone College building in 1913, it operated from the JJ School of Architecture from 1922 to 1955. A govt official said 7.5 acres of the nine-acre land is in the name of JJ, and the rest is in the name of Sydenham College.

Sources from the university, however, said the property registry card for the entire land and the utility bills are still in the name of JJ, but there is some lease document which is still on Sydenham College’s name, which needs to be sorted. “It is not a major problem, as both JJ and Sydenham colleges are govt-run institutions, and it will not be difficult to get the documents in place,” they said.

As per the gazette notification of Oct 19, 2023, ‘the entire moveable and immoveable assets of the newly formed university will be legally transferred in the name of ‘Sir JJ School of Art, Architecture and Design, Mumbai, within one year of the notification’. It added, ‘There shall be no diversion of assets or funds/revenues of the institution deemed-to-be university/or of its constituent teaching units, without prior permission of the University Grants Commission and the Ministry of Education’.

While one year has already passed, the state govt is yet to transfer the assets, as per the mandate. The govt is also reviewing the policy as the sponsoring body of the university, Sir JJ Foundation, also has private members, along with govt officials. There was a discussion in the last board meeting held in the first week of May, but no resolution was arrived at, said a govt official, adding most ex-officio directors on the board will continue to be govt officials/representatives, and therefore the transfer of assets may not be a major problem.