The Madras High Court on Monday dismissed writ petitions and appeals seeking to restrain UGC and Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) from insisting on National Eligibility Test (NET) and State-level Eligibility Test (SLET) qualification for candidates who have passed M.Phil prior to 1993 for being eligible for the posts of Assistant Professor in Tamil Nadu Educational Service.
The petitioners had sought a consequent direction to the authorities to entertain their applications for the post pursuant to a notice dated March 29 this year without imposing the condition of requirement of NET/SLET qualification.
In its order, the First Bench consisting of Chief Justice M.Y. Eqbal and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam said the Union Human Resource Development Ministry felt the need to introduce NET as compulsory for the purpose of appointment to teaching posts to upgrade standards. For that purpose, expert committees were constituted consisting of eminent experts and academicians who recommended that NET/SLET should be retained as compulsory requirement for appointments irrespective of the candidates possessing M.Phil degree or Ph.D.
After considering the report of Professor Mungekar committee, the UGC was directed to frame regulations to serve the national purpose of maintaining standards of higher education, but the UGC without considering the object of raising the standards and without considering the global scenario although framed regulations, tried to give certain relaxation to candidates for appearing for NET/SLET examination.
Therefore, the Bench said, in its view, the Centre had rightly refused to approve the UGC decision.
