1-The main objective of conducting any examination ,is for sure, judging the capability /competence of any candidate for selection as well as rejection ,mainly depends upon his own performance in that particular examination.
2-As per prevalent practice in our country, there are two methods /procedures of conducting examination for achieving the above mentioned objective.
3-The first one is based upon the criteria of merit list, in which, the examination conducting body/authority publishes the number of seats/vacancies as per their requirements, whatever it may be, and after examination a merit list is prepared and selection is done in required numbers of candidate from the top .This method is very prevalent practice in all competitive examination/entrance examination.
4-The second one is based upon the criteria of cut-off marks in which ,the examination conducting body/authority decide a cut off marks ,whatever it may be, and after examination ,all of the candidates who secures minimum cut – off marks are declared selected /passed. This method is very prevalent practice in University Examination, other internal examination as well UGC NET examination prior to this notification.
5- In both the above said method the criteria of selection as well as rejection is undoubtedly based on purely the performance of the candidate himself in any particular examination.
6- In the first method for example if a body /authority is conducting examination for selecting competent candidate for 15 seats /vacancies and 1000 of candidate appears in examination then after examination a merit list will be prepared and according to merit top 15 candidate will be selected and else 985 will be rejected.
In this procedure the candidate who secured 16th rank will be rejected purely because of his performance, in that particular examination was lesser than the top 15 candidates. His rejection does not depend upon the performance of the other candidates especially upon those who are of lower rank in the list. Here we can say non performance of candidate 17th to 1000 will not affect selection or rejection of candidate number 16th.
7- In the second method, for example, if a body/authority is conducting an examination and announces cut-off marks 50% and 1000 of candidates appear in examination. Among those 1000 candidates only 15 candidates secures 50% or above, then only those 15 candidates securing the cut-off marks will get selected/passed /qualified and else 985 will be rejected.
Here again the candidate no.16 is rejected purely because of his own performance i.e. he did not secure the minimum cut-off mark.
The non performance of other 984 candidates who also did not secure the minimum cut –off marks, will not affects the rejection of the candidate number 16th.
8- In both the above said procedure the rejection of the 16th candidate was purely on his performance and not upon the non performance of others.
9- But as per the new procedure laid down by the UGC, i.e. Number of the candidates to be declared as selected will be top 15% of the number of candidates securing minimum cut-off marks.
In this procedure, for example 1000 of students appear in any particular subject and 200 students secure minimum cut –off marks then top 30 students i.e. 15% of 200 will be declared successful and else 970 will be rejected .
Now what will happen when only 100 of students will secure the minimum cut-off marks? Then as per criteria only top 15 candidates will be selected and else 985 will be rejected. Here the candidate number 16 will also get rejected although his performance remains the same.
The rejection of the candidate no.16 is not because of his performance but because of the non performance of rest of 900 candidates.
10- A candidate can rely only upon his own preparation for the exam. He cannot compel others to study hard. If others are not studying, it is not a fault of the candidate. But since the number of seats is in the form of percentage, it is directly affected by the students who are not serious in their studies and even not able to qualify the minimum cut off percentage. It is totally illogical, irrational and unfair to select or reject any candidate on the basis of non performance of the others and cannot be justified. This is similar to “giving punishment to any one for the wrong done by someone else”
