Rai University was originally established by the Rai Foundation in 2002 in Chhattisgarh, one of 46 universities which were established through The Chhattisgarh Niji Kshetra Vishwavidyalaya (Sthapana aur Viniyaman) Adhiniyam, 2001 within a year. The act empowered the state to establish a university through a gazette notification and further allowed such universities to affiliate colleges and set up campuses. At its peak, the university had eleven campuses around Chhattisgarh and a total of 29 colleges across 25 campuses in India and abroad. It offered more than 300 courses. In 2005 the Supreme Court of India passed a decision which cancelled the relevant sections in the above-mentioned act, thus closing 117 universities, Rai University among them. The various campuses under Rai Foundation sought affiliation with other university such as Pandit Ravishankar Shukla University for the Raipur campus the Delhi University for the New Delhi campus and the Maharishi Dayanand University for the Gurgaon campus.
