Is Joint CSIR-UGC NET Examination 2019 Result Declared by NTA A Score Card Or Final Result? Plea In Supreme Court

The Special Leave Petition has been preferred by Vinaya PC whose candidature for Assistant Professor in Mathematics was rejected by the Kerala Public Service Commission on the ground that she acquired NET qualification only after the last date of gazette notification i.e. 23.01.2020. Aggrieved by the cancellation, the petitioner had approached the High Court seeking to direct the NTA to rectify the error by correcting the date of declaration of results as 15.01.2020 instead of 23.01.2020 and to reissue corrected NET qualification certificate. However the High Court on April 5, 2022 dismissed the plea stating that 'the result declared on 15.01.2020 was only a Score Card, not amounting to declaration of final results'. ("impugned judgment")

In the petition, the aspirant has stated that the total marks obtained by the petitioner in the result which was declared on January 15, 2020 was 110.500 (55%) and that she had qualified for JRF (NET)-UGC and her rank number was assigned as 101. Against this backdrop, the plea stated that it is crystal clear that her rank number was assigned as 101 in the merit list prepared by the CSIR and it was obviously before the issuance of said result / score card.

"Rank number is assigned only after fixing the cut off percentage of mark and strangely the cut off percentage issued by the CSIR is undated. From the rank assigned in said results / score card dated 15.01.2020, it is clear that the cut off percentage was intimated to the NTA by the CSIR before 15.01.2020 and on the basis of that rank was assigned as 101 and included in the results / score card. The Hon'ble High Court, despite no ambiguity, erroneously dismissed the petition filed by the Petitioner stating that the result declared on 15.01.2020 is only a Score Card, not amounting to declaration of final results," the plea further stated while challenging the legality and correctness of the judgment of writ court.

Seeking to stay the impugned judgment, the petitioner argued in the plea that the High Court has erroneously dismissed the writ even though the certificate was styled as a 'score card' all details of the results were included in the same and are to be treated as final result for all practical purposes.

The SLP has been filed through Advocate Alex Joseph.

Case Title: Vinaya PC v. NTA| SLP(C) 11836 of 2022