BHARAT KUMAR BHARTEE Vs. VICE-CHANCELLOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner before this Court took admission in the M -Phil Course of the Jamia Millia Islamia University in the academic year 2011 -2012. Vide letter dated 9.6.2011 issued by the University Grants Commission, the petitioner was sanctioned Rajiv Gandhi National Fellowship for SC candidates to pursue M. Phil/Ph.D. courses in terms of UGC guidelines on the subject. The petitioner, however, failed in Arabic in the first year of M. Phil Course. However, he was promoted to second year of the aforesaid Course, despite the fact that he had obtained 20 out of 100 marks in Arabic. This obviously was in terms of the Rules of the University which permitted the students to clear the paper in which he fails in the first attempt, in the next year of the Course. The petitioner, therefore, appeared in Arabic, in the next academic year and he cleared the said paper obtaining 50 out of 100 marks.

(2.) WHEN the petitioner submitted the bill for payment of UGC fellowship to the University it was rejected vide letter dated 18.8.2011 on the basis of the decision taken by the Dean of the University in a meeting held on 2.8.2011. The aforesaid decision reads as under:

(3.) THE learned counsel for the petitioner submits that since the petitioner was promoted to the second year of the Course and he cleared the paper in Arabic in the next academic year, his performance cannot be said to be unsatisfactory nor can it be said that he had failed in the examination. I, however, find no merit in the contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner. The petitioner was promoted to the next year of the Course on account of the Rules of the University which permit a candidate to re -appear, in the paper which he fails to clear, in the next academic year, but that does not mean that he will not be deemed to have failed in such a paper, in the year in which he appeared for the first time. It is quite obvious that the intention of the UGC to grant benefit of the fellowship was only to those students who make satisfactory progress in the research work and are able to clear all the examinations related to M.Phil/Ph.D. Courses. Since the petitioner failed in one of the subjects, i.e., Arabic, in M.Phil examination held in the academic year 2011 -2012, the fellowship has rightly been cancelled. The writ petition is devoid of any merits and is accordingly dismissed.