Changed fellowship eligibility criteria and scheme discontinuation after long pendency bars relief to NET-qualified minority research scholar.

J U D G M E N T

Dated this the 1^st day of April, 2026 The writ petition is preferred seeking a direction to the respondents to include the petitioner as eligible to apply for the Maulana Azad National Fellowship and also to direct the respondents to permit all candidates who have qualified the NET examination to apply for the fellowship, irrespective of their year of passing.

2. It is the contention of the petitioner that she is a research scholar pursuing her Ph.D. at Maulana Azad Urdu University, Hyderabad, and that she is eligible to apply for the Maulana Azad National Fellowship intended for minority students. However, the petitioner is aggrieved by the decision of the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs, the funding agency for the fellowship, and the University Grants Commission (UGC), which conducts the selection process and disburses the fellowship.

3. The petitioner qualified the UGC NET examination in the year 2014. At that point of time, the fellowship was available to candidates engaged in research with UGC NET qualification. In order to satisfy the research requirement, the petitioner joined Maulana Azad Urdu University to pursue research.

4. In the meanwhile, a new criterion was introduced by the University whereby only those candidates, who had cleared the NET examination in the immediately preceding year, were eligible to apply for the fellowship. It is the case of the petitioner that she was denied the opportunity for no fault on her part. Though she preferred complaints before the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs and the UGC, no action was taken.

5. A counter affidavit has been filed stating that the objective of the fellowship was to provide financial assistance for a period of five years to students belonging to six notified minority communities, namely Buddhists, Christians, Jains, Muslims, Parsis and Sikhs, to pursue M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes. It is further stated that the scheme was discontinued from the academic year 2022–23 onwards in view of its overlap with other fellowship schemes.

The writ petition is pending before this Court for the last six years. It appears that, with the passage of time, the reliefs sought in the writ petition cannot be granted at this stage. Accordingly, the writ petition is dismissed.