Jawaharlal Nehru University administration on Thursday, approached HC regarding the UGC Notification which says that a professor cannot guide more than three M.Phil and eight Ph.D scholars at one time. The University claimed that the notification is binding.
Advocate Monica Arora informed Justice V.K Rao, who was appearing for JNU administration that the University will neither receive grant nor the power to award degrees in case it stops following the regulations of UGC.
The notification sets an upper bar on the number of M.Phil and Ph.D students a faculty member can have under its wing and this has become a cause of contention and altercation between the students and the university administration.
Even after the protest from several council members the notification was adopted by the University on December 26, during its 142nd Academic council meet.
The students said "the UGC notification "threatens to put their future in jeopardy" as they would not be able to find a supervisor due to the clauses prescribed in the notification."
"The ramifications of the notification would extend beyond existing students and would also mean that very few admissions in the current academic session would take place for aspiring research scholars, thereby violating norms of mandated reservation norms", the students said. The court has now postponed the hearing to March 14 as JNU said that students have not made UGC a party in the case.