Giving a free hand for education regulators to change eligibility criteria in the interest of preserving standards of education, the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the University Grant Commission’s (UGC) decision to tweak the qualification criteria for the National Eligibility Test (NET), after candidates had written the examination.
Refusing to interfere with the decision of the UGC, a bench of Justices KS Radhakrishnan and AK Sikri said, “We are of the view that in academic matters unless there is a clear violation of statutory provisions, regulations or the notification issued, the courts shall keep their hands off since those issues fall within the domain of the experts.”
Since UGC is an expert body entrusted with the duty to determine and maintain standards of teaching, examination and research, the bench held, “For attaining the said standards, it is open to the UGC to lay down any qualifying criteria which has a rational nexus to the object to be achieved.”
The facts of the case were that in March 2012, UGC invited applications for NET exam for Junior Research Fellowship and lectureship. It prescribed minimum marks for general category as 40 per cent, 40 per cent and 50 per cent in papers 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Candidates from OBC and SC/ST candidates were given a five per cent and 10 per cent relaxation respectively. After the test in June 2012, the UGC added a clause requiring general candidates to obtain 65 per cent in all three subjects, 60 per cent for OBC and 55 per cent for SC/ST for qualifying.
The Bombay High Court set aside the new eligibility criteria as it felt that the rules of the game could not be changed after it had begun. Setting aside the HC order, the apex bench said, “Prescribing the (final) qualifying criteria, in our view, does not amount to a change in the rule of the game as it was already pre-meditated in the notification. We are not inclined to say that the UGC has acted arbitrarily or whimsically against the candidates.”
The apex court further held that the candidates who took the NET 2012 were not misled in any manner and clarified the phrase “clearing the NET” means clearing the final results and not just passing the three papers of the examination.