Out of 'net', students drag UGC to court

Disappointed with the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) decision to alter the eligibility criteria for the National Eligibility Test (NET) post declaration of results, four students from the University of Hyderabad (UoH) and the English and Foreign Languages University (Eflu) have approached the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

They filed a writ petition on Tuesday challenging the results published on September 18. Their plea is expected to come up for hearing soon but the last date, according to UGC, to hear any grievances regarding the results is October 18, i.e Thursday. The petitioners, Mohammed Jamsheer, KP Prameela, Ashitha Mantakathinkal and Mohammed Afzal Puthuuseery, strongly believe they have achieved the minimum eligibility criteria as per the first published notification of the UGC prior to the examination.

According to the UGC website’s notification, the commission was to decide the updated criteria before publication of the results, but could do only after the results were published which had taken candidates by surprise.

The petitioners want the high court to direct the UGC to consider the first declared criteria.

They also want a directive to the UGC to evaluate their papers on the basis of the minimum qualifying marks indicated at the time of notification of the exam.

“According to the notification prior to the exam, candidates had to score a minimum percentage in all three papers. Eg, for general category, the breakdown was 40%, 40% and 50% for paper 1,2 and 3 respectively. And the notification issued after the exam says a candidate needs an aggregate of 65% in all three papers and not that of minimum marks for each paper for qualifying NET,” said one of the petitioners.

Alleging a number of incorrect questions, the petition says, “the entire aggregate percentages would become erroneous if the incorrect questions are also considered for the purpose of computation of the total marks as was done in the recently published results.”

The petition also requested the court to direct the UGC not to destroy the OMR answer-sheets of the petitioners for further review, against the usual UGC practice of disposal of the same.

The NET which decides the candidates’ eligibility for employment in universities across the country, was conducted for the first time in Multiple Choice Questions format in 2012. A carbon copy of the OMR answer sheets was given to the candidates soon after the exam.

Sources: http://newindianexpress.com/cities/hyderabad/article1304497.ece