- (1.) This appeal has been preferred against the judgment of learned Single Judge dated 13.7.2010 dismissing the writ petition against refusal for enrollment for Ph.D. on the basis of degree possessed by the appellant by distance education.
(2.) Case of the appellant is that she obtained B.Ed. degree through distance education programme of the Annamalai University in Tamilnadu while working as a teacher in the State of Punjab. He also obtained M.Ed. degree from the same university through the same mode in the year 1997. On that basis, she applied for enrollment for Ph.D. in the year 2006. The Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU) rejected the said prayer vide letter dated 4.8.2006 on the ground that degree of the appellant could not be treated as equivalent to the degree of the said university rendering the appellant eligible for enrollment for Ph.D. Aggrieved thereby the writ petition was filed in this Court relying upon instructions of the University Grants Commission (UGC). The university contested the petition by stating that recognition by the UGC or any other body for the purpose of obtaining employment was not relevant for enrollment for Ph.D. The university constituted an equivalence committee and the said committee held that M.Ed. degree of Annamalai University through distance education could not be treated as M.Ed. degree of the GNDU.
(3.) Learned Single Judge dismissed the writ petition. It was held that the university could adopt its own standard for equivalence of a particular degree for the purpose of enrollment for Ph.D. and judgments of Hon'ble Supreme Court in Tariq Islam v. Aligarh Muslim University, 2001 4 SCT 818 and Dhan Raj Singh v. State of Haryana, 1994 2 SCT 205 on the issue of recognition of a degree for appointment could not be applied to equivalence for academic pursuit.;