The Calicut University’s decision to restore 35 per cent as the cut-off mark for students belonging to the Scheduled Cast and Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) community in the PhD entrance examinations has come as a relief to the candidates concerned. They had expressed their fears in various forums about the university’s decision to raise the cut-off to 45 per cent this year.
‘Denial of justice’It was during a Syndicate meeting of the university on Saturday that a decision was taken to lower the cut-off marks from 45 to 35 per cent for the SC/ST students in the PhD entrance examinations. The Hindu had reported the “denial of justice” involved in the raising of the cut-off mark, citing the example of Zoology Department at the University of Calicut, where not even one out of the 10 candidates selected for the PhD programme, was from the SC/ST category, this year.
“The decision is a big relief for many SC/ST candidates who are aspiring for higher studies fighting against odds,” said Varughese Mathew, former head of the Physics Department at Malabar Christian College.
Mr. Mathew had brought to the notice of Vice Chancellor M. Abdul Salam the case of a reservation candidate from Kozhikode who had been denied admission to PhD in the Zoology Department of the university despite securing 38 per cent mark in the entrance test.
Dalit forums, including the Indian Union Dalit League, had come out against the university’s decision to raise the cut-off mark.
The forum had observed that the decision would ruin the prospects of hundreds of SC/ST students.
Welcoming the university’s decision to reinstate the earlier cut-off mark, U.C. Raman, former MLA and president of the Indian Union Dalit League, said that the university’s willingness to review the decision should be appreciated.
“We appreciate the University, which reviewed its decision and the media, which took up the issue,” said Mr. Raman.
