The joint CSIR-UGC-NET examination, scheduled between Tuesday and Thursday has been postponed amid a huge paper leak row, the National Testing Agency announced this evening. The testing agency, in a circular, said that the exam had been postponed due to "unavoidable circumstances as well as logistic issues".
The revised schedule for the conduct of this examination will be announced later through the official website, it said.
Joint CSIR UGC NET is conducted for Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) and Lectureship (LS) and Assistant Professor posts in Indian universities and colleges subject to fulfilling the eligibility criteria laid down by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
The Ministry of Education cancelled the UGC-NET exam on Wednesday, just a day after it was held, citing "integrity of the exam may have been compromised".
"On 19th June, 2024, the University Grants Commission (UGC) received certain inputs from the National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs on the Examination. These inputs prima-facie indicate that the integrity of the aforesaid examination may have been compromised," the Ministry of Education said in a release.
The decision to cancel the UGC-NET examinations led to widespread discontent among the student community, with many alleging irregularities in the examinations conducted by the NTA.
Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, under fire for the irregularities in NEET and the cancellation of the UGC-NET exam, said a high-level committee will be formed.
Mr Pradhan said when the UGC chairman received information from the cyber crime team in the home ministry about questions being on the darknet, tallying was done with the original paper and an immediate decision was taken to hold a CBI investigation. It was also decided to cancel the exam after it was established that its integrity had been compromised.