S.DHAYALAN Vs. REGISTRAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition is filed seeking a direction to the respondents 1 and 2 to admit the petitioner in the Ph.D. programme for the year October 2018/July 2019.

(2.) The petitioner is a post-graduate in English (M.A.), besides possessing an undergraduate degree in Education (B.Ed.). He had stated that he served as Guest Lecturer from 2013-2015. Pursuant to the notification issued by the first respondent, the petitioner applied for Ph.D. programme, he had submitted his application and wrote the Common Eligibility Test (CET) on 24.06.2018. In the results of the CET published on 23.07.2018, he secured 7.70 marks out of 35 marks. When the petitioner approached the first respondent for admission, he was informed that he could not seek admission, as the minimum of 10 marks is the qualifying marks for admission. Hence, the petitioner is before this Court.

(3.) The University/respondents 1 and 2 filed a counter-affidavit stating that the minimum of 10 marks has been prescribed based on the Regulations issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and since the petitioner failed to secure the minimum marks, he was not considered for admission. It is claimed that the said UGC Regulations stipulated 50% of the marks in the CET as eligible marks for admission. It is further stated that the petitioner was given the benefit of 5% relaxation of marks from 55% to 50% applicable for differently-abled persons and there cannot be any relaxation with respect to the minimum qualifying marks in CET. It is admitted in the counter affidavit that the decision to fix minimum qualifying marks was taken by the Research Board and Standing Committee on Academic Affairs on 04.06.2018 and the same was duly approved by the Syndicate of the University.