The Delhi High Court on Friday asked Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to respond to a petition seeking direction to reconsider its decision to allocate 100% PhD seats to Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) category candidates in its seven centres.
In previous years
The court’s order came on a petition by JNU Students’ Federation of India (SFI), which highlighted that in the previous years, the PhD seats in the seven centres of the varsity were filled up through both from JRF and non-JRF category candidates.
However, in the current academic year 2021-22, JNU has “illegally, arbitrarily, unconstitutionally” through its e-Prospectus decided to fill up all 100% PhD seats through JRF category candidates, it said.
The petition filed through advocate Ashok Aggarwal, said two UGC-NET-JRF examinations have not taken place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. UGC-NET-JRF exams, which were held twice a year have not been held in December 2020 or in May 2021.
This meant, the non-JRF PhD candidates could not get an opportunity to take the UGC-NET-JRF examination for no fault of theirs, the plea said.
However, as the entrance examination is not being held by JNU and all seats here have been allotted to JRF candidates, such candidates are left with no option at all to apply for PhD seats in these seven Centres, the plea contended.
