PRIYA MANN Vs. UNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMISSION AND ANOTHER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has prayed for the issuance of a writ in the nature of certiorari for quashing the revised answer key dated 30.12.2015 of the UGC- NET December, 2014 insofar as it declares correct answers to question nos.26, 42 and 46 in Paper II (English) to be 'D', 'C' and 'A' respectively and question no.23 in Paper-I (Set Z) to be 'D'. She has also prayed for issuance of a writ in the nature of mandamus, directing the respondents to revise the answer key to the aforesaid questions and, thereafter, declare her result as "qualified" for eligibility for appointment as Assistant Professor.

(2.) According to the petitioner, the Government of India, vide its notification dated 22.07.1988, entrusted the task for determining the eligibility for lectureship to the University Grants Commission. The National Educational Testing Bureau of University Grants Commission (UGC) accordingly conducts the National Eligibility Test (NET) to determine eligibility for lectureship in order to ensure minimum standards for the entrants in the teaching profession and research. The said test is conducted twice in a year, generally in the months of June and December in Humanities (including languages), Social Sciences, Forensic Science, Environmental Sciences, Computer Science and Applications and Electronic Science. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) conducted the NET on behalf of the UGC on 28.12.2014 for determining the eligibility of Indian Nationals for appointment as Assistant Professors in Universities and Colleges. The NET conducted in December 2014 was consisted of three papers of only objective type questions. Paper-I was of general nature, consisted of 60 multiple choice questions of 2 marks each, out of which a candidate was required to answer any 50 questions, Paper-II was consisted of 50 objective type questions of 2 marks each based on the subject selected by the candidate and Paper-III was consisted of 75 objective type questions of 2 marks each from the subject selected by the candidate. In order to be successful in the NET exam, the General Category candidate was first required to obtain minimum marks separately in Paper-I (40/40%), Paper-II (40/40%) and Paper-III (75/50%) and, thereafter, a merit list was to be prepared subject-wise and category-wise using the aggregate marks of all the three papers secured by all the candidates, who have obtained the minimum marks. Lastly, the top 15% candidates (for each subject and category) from the merit list so prepared were to be declared NET qualified for eligibility for appointment as Assistant Professor.

(3.) It is submitted that the petitioner, being fully eligible, appeared in the NET exam, result of which was declared on 15.06.2015. She secured 202 marks out of total 350 marks and was not declared as "qualified" being eligible for appointment as Assistant Professor. The petitioner was shown to have secured 57.71% marks, whereas the cut-off percentage was 58.86%. The petitioner was, thus, required to obtain 206 marks (two more questions have to be corrected) for the purpose of qualifying the NET. It is submitted that the petitioner found the answer key to 4 questions as incorrect and, thus, submitted her grievance in respect of the following questions and the answer key provided by the respondents:-