The Kerala High Court on Wednesday extended up to October 31, its order to the University Grants Commission (UGC) not to destroy the answer sheets of the candidates who appeared for the UGC National Eligibility Test (NET) held in June.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice A M Shaffique issued the directive while considering 2500-odd petitions challenging post-result alteration of the test’s qualification norms by the UGC.
The NET examination results were published on September 18. After the publication of the results, the commission allegedly altered the test’s qualification norms by mandating that candidates in the general category should score an aggregate of 65 per cent for all three papers to become eligible for lectureship. The corresponding figure for the OBC category is 60 per cent and that of the SC/ST category is 55 per cent.
The UGC vehemently opposed the interim order of the court. However, the court declined to vacate the order.
The UGC submitted that it can determine the eligibility criteria and the notification is only an invitation to appear for the examination.
Since the NET is an objective type examination qualifying criteria can only be determined later. The wisdom of the committee cannot be called into question, the UGC further submitted.
It submitted that nearly 5,70,000 candidates had appeared for the NET examination held in June.
Unlike previous years, Paper III of the exam held in June was in objective mode instead of the usual subjective mode.
Compared to previous years’ pass percentage, even after fixing 65 percentage of marks as aggregate, the pass percentage is three times higher, the UGC said.