The Madras High Court ruled against the eligibility criteria set by the Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University for pursuing PhD programme by reversing the rule that mandates a two-year Master's degree in Law for the research programme, stated a report by The New Indian Express.
The first bench of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy passed the orders on a petition filed by Suganya Jeba Sarojini seeking a direction to admit her to the PhD programme.
The bench, in a recent order, noted that when the University Grants Commission (UGC) standards approve two sets of undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) qualifications, if by an admission regulation, the universities making rules mandating certain eligibility criteria does not mean 'higher standards' but would be 'impinging upon the jurisdiction' of the UGC and would accordingly be 'ultra vires'.
The order stated that clause 3.1 of the TN Dr Ambedkar Law University Ph.D Regulations, 2020, is read down without the words 'Two Years' and shall read as follows: "3.1 Ph.D. Degree in law (Full-Time): Candidates possessing a master's degree in Law from any recognised university through regular full-time study having secured a minimum of 55% of marks in the aggregator or any equivalent grade in point scale wherever grading system is followed".
The bench also held that the university is bound by the regulations of the UGC and cannot prescribe a different set of eligibility. The petitioner, who had completed LLM one-year programme at Amity University, Noida, had applied for PhD regular programme but the university refused admission saying only candidates with two year LLM degree would be eligible.
Advocate M Nirmal Kumar, representing the petitioner, argued that one year LLM was introduced by the UGC through a 2012 guidelines and asked all the universities to change over to the course from 2013-14.
He also contended that the law university has encroached upon the powers of the UGC by invalidating a master's degree approved by it, stated The New Indian Express report.
