A public interest litigation petition was filed before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday, seeking implementation of 5% relaxation in marks, from 55% to 50% , as per University Grants Commission Regulation, 2016, for differently abled people seeking admission to M. Phil. and Ph. D. programmes.
The petitioner, M .Kamaraj, said as per the University Grants Commission (Minimum Standards and Procedure for Award of M. Phil/ Ph. D Degree) Regulation, 2016, a relaxation of 5% was allowed for differently abled candidates.
The petitioner, who had obtained 53.4% in MA (History), said he had applied for M. Phil. (History) at the Government Arts College, Tiruchi, by paying the application fees and appearing for entrance examination. However, he was denied admission for the year 2016-17 as the prospectus issued by Bharathidasan University for M. Phil. had the minimum eligibility marks as 55%.
An RTI application was filed seeking clarification on the 5% relaxation. A representation was also made to the Vice-Chancellor of the university. The Public Information Officer of the university replied that though there was a 5% relaxation, it could not be implemented for 2016-17 academic programme, the petitioner said.
The petitioner further said many universities in the State and some Central universities had not implemented the relaxation. Even the National Institution for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities (NIEPMD), Chennai, was yet to implement the relaxation.
A representation was sent to the Joint Secretary of Social Justice and Empowerment (Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities) and the Director, NIEPMD, for the implementation of the UGC regulation, said Mr. Kamaraj.
The petitioner said he could not apply for 2017-18 programme due to personal reasons. The differently abled candidates were put to much hardship and their right to higher education could not be curtained due to non-implementation of the regulation.
Taking up the petition for hearing, a division bench of Justices M. Venugopal and Abdul Quddhose directed notice to the Principal Secretary, Ministry of HRD; Principal Secretary, Social Justice and Empowerment; Principal Secretary, Department of Higher Education; Secretary, UGC, and Director, NIEPMD.
