HC stays order on dual degrees

The Madras High Court has stayed a single judge's order, which held that the additional degree obtained by undergoing a one-year course was not equivalent to three-year degree course.
A division bench comprising, Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and M Vijayaraghavan granted the injunction while admitting a writ appeal from Premakumari of Ulundurpet and three others challenging August 14 last year order of Justice V Ramasubramanian.
Passing orders on a batch of petitions, the single judge had held that an additional degree (dual degree) obtained by candidates after undergoing a course of duration of one year was not equivalent to a degree obtained after undergoing a course of duration of three years.

Appellants' counsel submitted that the UGC regulations permitted 'add-on-courses' like additional degrees after a regular degree graduation.
The UGC Regulations-1985 relied on to pass the orders in the writ petitions had been subsequently superseded by UGC Regulations of 2003. As per the regulation, a person qualified with additional degree in a particular subject was eligible for admission to Masters Degree.
While studying additional degree, common subjects already studied in the first regular degree need not be undergone once again and confine the studies of core subjects only.
All these years, the Tamil Nadu Government considered additional degree as eligible qualification for appointment/promotion for teaching posts. The August 14, 2012 order had reversed the same, Sankaran contended.