UGC rules exempting PhD holders from NET apply retrospectively: Supreme Court

New Delhi, August 19

The UGC (Minimum Qualifications for Appointment and Career Advancement of Teachers in Universities and Institutions Affiliated to It) Regulations, 2016, which exempted PhD holders from NET, would operate retrospectively, the Supreme Court has ruled.

“When an enactment or an amendment is declaratory, curative or clarificatory, impelled by a felt need to make clear what was always intended, such amendment is usually meant to operate from an antecedent date, or to cover antecedent events,” a Bench of Justice UU Lalit, Justice S Ravindra Bhat and Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia said in its August 17 verdict.

Justice Bhat sought to emphasise that the UGC had the power to give retrospective effect to the UGCR-2016 under Section 26(3) of the UGC Act. The court took note of the fact that the UGC Rules were subsequently amended in 2016 and 2018 to clarify that both pre-2009 and post-2009 PhD holders would be exempted from qualifying NET.

Allowing the appeals filed by the University of Kerala and one Dr MS Jayakumar, the SC set aside a Kerala HC verdict quashing his appointment as a Lecturer in Sociology.