http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/order-reserved-on-...

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Monday reserved its order on an appeal filed by the UGC against a single judge’s verdict quashing the new qualifying criteria prescribed by the UGC in the National Eligibility Test for lectureships.

The Bench comprising Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice K.Vinod Chandran reserved the order after the conclusion of arguments on the appeals.

The single judge had held that the UGC regulations did not confer any right on the UGC to fix a high mark after holding of the NET.

Nor such criteria could be introduced through regulation just before the announcement of the results by executive orders.

The introduction of the new criteria was not supported by the law, the single judge had held.

As per the new criteria, candidates in the general category who had scored an aggregate of 65 per cent for all the three papers would be eligible to lectureship while the OBC candidates need 60 per cent and the marks for candidates in the SC/ST category was 55 per cent.

The single judge had also declared that the petitioners who had obtained separate minimum marks prescribed in the UGC notification had cleared the NET .The court had ordered that they should be given the necessary certificates in a month.

In its appeal, the UGC contended that the High Court had no right to make a declaration regarding the result of the test.

It had been clearly stated in the original notification that candidates should obtain the minimum required marks in each paper separately.

It had also been said that the qualifying criteria for Junior Research Fellowship and eligibility for lectureship would be decided by the UGC before the declaration of results.

It was the moderation committee appointed by the UGC comprising senior academicians who had recommended that the general, OBC (non-creamy layer) and the SC/ST candidates would be required to obtain an aggregate percentage of 65, 60 and 55 respectively in addition to the paper-wise minimum percentage as qualifying criteria.

The notification had clearly said that the final cut-off shall be decided by the commission before the declaration of results. The single judge’s ruling would only affect the standard of education.