FAHIMUL HAGUE KHAN Vs. UNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMISSION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN March, 2010, the respondent-University Grants Commission (UGC) came out with a scheme for providing Maulana Azad National Fellowships for Minority Students. The scheme was open to candidate, belonging to one of the minorities, to pursue higher studies such as regular/full time M.Phil/Ph.D. degrees in Science, Humanity, Social Science and Engineering and Technology. There were as many as 750 slots every year in the said scheme and 3% fellowships were reserved for Physically Handicapped candidates, belonging to minority communities. The objective of the scheme was to provide integrated five year fellowship in the form of financial assistance to the students from minority communities, as notified by the Central Government, to pursue higher studies and the scheme covered all the Universities/Institutions recognized by UGC under Section 2(f) and 3 of UGC Act. The candidates, who belonged to minority communities and who had passed out post-graduation examination with minimum 50% marks in the concerned subject, were entitled to apply for the said fellowship. Another requirement of the said scheme was that the annual income of the beneficiary/parents/guardian of the beneficiary should not exceed Rs 4.5 lakhs from all sources. The tenure of the fellowship was initially for two years and before expiry of the said period, the work of the fellow was to be evaluated by a Committee of three members comprising Head of the Department, Supervisor and one outside subject expert, to be constituted by the concerned Department of the University/Institution/College. If the research work was found satisfactory, the tenure was to be extended further for a period of three years under the enhanced emoluments of the said Maulana Azad National Senior Research Fellowship. The recommendations of the Committee were to be submitted to UGC for upgradation to the aforesaid level. In case the work for the first two years was not satisfactory, the candidate was to be given one additional year for improvement. In such a case, his work was to be evaluated again before third year of the tenure and if improvement was found, the fellowship was to be given for two more years. Yet another eligibility requirement was that the candidate should get admission and registration for regular and full time M.Phil/Ph.D. course in the University/Academic Institution not later than within a period of two years from the receipt of the award letter.

(2.) THE petitioner before this Court, who at the time the aforesaid advertisement came to be issued by UGC, was already registered with JNU for Ph.D. in Persian and was amongst the candidates who applied for the aforesaid fellowship from UGC. The applications of as many as 33 such candidates were forwarded by JNU to UGC vide communication dated 03.04.2010. The name of the petitioner appears at serial No. 13 in the aforesaid letter. The grievance of the petitioner is that no fellowship has been granted to him though other persons, who were already registered for Ph.D. from JNU at the time the aforesaid scheme was advertised and whose names were included in the communication dated 03.04.2010, were granted the above-referred fellowship. The petitioner is accordingly seeking a direction to the respondent-UGC to consider his application for grant of Maulana Azad National Fellowship and payment of compensation in terms of the aforesaid scheme.

(3.) IN its counter-affidavit, the respondent-UGC has taken a stand that the application of the petitioner was not received by the concerned section of UGC and, therefore, the application could not be considered. However, receipt of the letter dated 03.04.2010 from JNU is not disputed in the counter-affidavit of UGC.