Update : 21.12.2012, Friday - Supreme Court Judgement on UGC NET Minimum Marks and Cut off.
The supreme court issued an order saying that the UGC's decision was invalid as it did not follow the exam policy in announcing the changes in cut-offs and that, too, in such a short period of time. The SC decision is valid for all candidates who sat for the June 2012 examinations. The old cut-offs will be considered and new results will be announced.
UGC is an autonomous constitutional body to govern and control all higher education related issues in India. It is the soul power body to conduct Natioanal Elegibility Test for lecturership and Junior research Fellowship. In the June 2012 UGC NET exam, the UGC has introduced some new changes in the examination pattern. It has removed the Third Descriptive Paper and replaced with an Objective Type test like the other Two papers. But there was a major confusion in setting cutoff marks for the successful candidates. UGC didnt had any specific cutoff marks for the exam and it used to define the cutoff marks during the publication of results. It means they can set 55 or 65 what ever may be according to their convinient. This policy of the UGC has been strongly opposed by a batch of candidates as soon as the results of the UGC NET June 2012 released. In this exam UGC had set 55% for SC/ST , 60% for OBC and 65% for the GEN categories. This immediate hike in the cutoff has motivated the affected candidates to approach the court.
Kerala High Court Judgenent
Hearing arguenments from the both sides the Kerala High Court on Monday 17.12.2012 quashed the new qualifying criteria prescribed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) after holding the National Eligibility Test (NET) for lectureships. Justice P.R. Ramachandran Nair held that the UGC regulations did not confer any right on the UGC to fix high marks after holding of the NET. Nor could such criteria be introduced just before the announcement of the results by executive orders. The introduction of the new criteria was not supported by the law.
Fundemental Rights Violation by UGC ?
The court said that assuming that the UGC had the power to alter the minimum marks, it should have been done in a fair and reasonable manner and not whimsically. The change of the cut-off marks at the final stage violated Article 14 of the Constitution (equality before law).
Then, what is the minimum marks for UGC NET?
The court also declared that the petitioners, who had obtained the separate minimum marks prescribed in the UGC notification, had cleared the NET. The court also ordered that they should be issued the necessary certificate in a month.
UGC answer sheets must be preserved
The court directed the UGC not to destroy the answer sheets of the UGC NET.
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