LAWS(DLH)-2024-4-130

AJAY KUMAR H. Vs. UNION OF INDIA

Decided On April 30, 2024
Ajay Kumar H. Appellant
V/S
UNION OF INDIA Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is aggrieved by Notification dtd. 28/3/2023 issued by the Graduate School, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) which cancels the candidature of the petitioner for admission to the Ph.D. programme in the IARI in the discipline of Plant Genetics Resources on the ground that the petitioner was not eligible for admission thereto.

(2.) I have heard Mr. Rajiv Kumar Srivastava, learned counsel for the petitioner and Mr. S.S. Lingwal, learned counsel for ICAR at length.

(3.) The pleadings on record reveal that the qualification held by the petitioner was M.Sc. in Genetics and Plant Breeding (GPB) from the University of Agricultural Science (UAS), Bengaluru, obtained in 2020. Following this, the petitioner appeared in the ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (Ph.D.)-2022 (hereinafter the 'AICE 2022') examination conducted by the ICAR on 20/9/2022 through the National Testing Agency (NTA), in the Plant Genetic Resources and Economic Botany (PGR) Discipline. He claims to have come third all India in the said examination, following which he participated in the counselling conducted by the ICAR on 21/12/2022 and was provisionally admitted to the ICAR-IARI on 3/1/2023.