Supreme Court rejects PIL contesting UGC NET cancellation
A public interest lawsuit (PIL) contesting the University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test’s (UGC NET) cancellation was dismissed by the Supreme Court on Monday. [Ministry of Education and others vs. Parveen Dabas and others]
A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra determined that since the exam has already been rescheduled for August 21, the Court’s interference would lead to uncertainty and chaos.
“The exam was held on June 18 and the exam was cancelled on June 19. Now the exam is scheduled for August 21 and the petition challenges the cancellation of the exam and now 2 months have passed. Entertaining the petition at the present stage will only lead to uncertainty and chaos. Devashish Bharuka says that 9 lakh candidates will appear for the exam on August 21 and therefore the cancellation of the exam after this delay cannot be challenged,” the Court said.
The court further said that the government was being doubly cautious after the irregularities in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), which led to the cancellation of the exam.
In July, the Supreme Court had refused to entertain a PIL filed by a lawyer challenging the cancellation of the UGC-NET, which was earlier scheduled to be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) in June.
The bench had dismissed the plea after noting that it was filed by a lawyer and not by any candidate who was personally affected. The court had made it clear that no candidate affected by the cancellation of the exam would be debarred from seeking relief.
The UGC-NET determines the eligibility of candidates to pursue research opportunities, including Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and Senior Research Fellowship (SRF), crucial for pursuing doctoral programmes in India.
The exam, to be conducted by the NTA, was earlier scheduled to be held in June this year. However, it was cancelled shortly before it was to begin, reportedly after some intelligence inputs indicated that the exam paper had been leaked.
The UGC-NET exam will now be held on August 21.
This development occurred not long after a dispute arose regarding anomalies in the NEET application process for undergraduate medical schools. NEET is also run by the NTA.
The Supreme Court had recently refused to order any re-examination for the NEET undergraduate exam.
