Supreme Court dismisses PIL challenging cancellation of UGC NET

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the cancellation of the University Grants Commission National Eligibility Test (UGC NET). [Parveen Dabas and ors v. Ministry of Education and Ors].A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra determined that since the exam had already been re-scheduled for August 21, the Court's interference would add to uncertainty and chaos."Exam was held on June 18 and exam was cancelled on June 19. Exam is now scheduled on August 21 and plea challenges the cancellation of the exam and now 2 months have elapsed. Entertaining the plea at the present stage would only add to uncertainty and add to utter chaos. Devashish Bharuka says 9 lakh will appear for the exam on August 21 and thus at this late stage, cancellation cannot be challenged," the Court noted..The Court further noted that after the government was doubly cautious after the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) fiasco, leading to the cancellation of the exam."Let this process go on now," it added..The Supreme Court had in July refused to entertain a PIL petition filed by a lawyer challenging the cancellation of the UGC-NET that was earlier scheduled to be held in June by the National Testing Agency (NTA).The Bench had dismissed the plea after noting that it was filed by a lawyer and not a candidate who was personally affected. The Court had made it clear no candidate affected by the cancellation of exam would be prevented from seeking relief..The UGC-NET determines the eligibility of candidates to pursue research opportunities, including Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and Senior Research Fellowship (SRF), crucial to pursuing doctoral programmes in India. The exam, which is held by the NTA, was earlier scheduled to be conducted in June this year. However, it was cancelled shortly before it was slated to start, reportedly after certain intelligence inputs indicated that the exam paper was leaked. The UGC-NET has now been rescheduled to be held on August 21. The development took place shortly after controversy erupted over irregularities in the conduct of the NEET for undergraduate medical college admissions, which is also organised by the NTA.The Supreme Court had recently declined to order any re-examination for NEET undergraduate exam. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is still probing the NEET case.