NARENDRA JHA Vs. DEPTT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India which seeks a mandamus to the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India to provide financial assistance to the project of the petitioner.

(2.) The petitioner seeks assistance for a project entitled "Existence of Life in Universe". The petitioner had made several representations to various authorities. The respondent has examined the proposal of the petitioner and by the letter dated 24/5/1993, issued by Senior Scientific Officer of respondent No.1, it was found that the proposal did not have any scientific content. Consequently the request of funding the proposal was rejected. Even on 3/9/1996 the respondent had said that the experts have declined to recommend the project of the petitioner . It may not be out of place to mention that the petitioner is a Post-Gracduate in English language and has not studied Science in any curriculum. I have perused the Project Report, submitted by the petitioner before the respondent and the said Project Report apart from seeking sanction for budgetary allocation does not refer to any scientific term. The only reference in the project paper is a. newspaper article written by J.V. Narlikar on Extra Terrestrial Life.

(3.) Consequently I find that the rejection of the proposal for funding made by the petitioner was justified and the writ petition accordingly deserves dismissal. The learned counsel for the petitioner states that in any event whether or not the project is funded, it should be referred to a Research Institute for being examined.