Malpractice, no transparency in NIRF Ranking? Madras HC stay on 2025 list
Madras High Court
Madurai: On the plea that medical institutions with inadequate infrastructure and subpar academic standards were allegedly securing high rankings under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF), the Madras High Court has issued an interim stay order restraining the Union Ministry of Education and the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) from publishing the NIRF ranking 2025.
The court's order came in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by C Chellamuthu from Dindigul, alleging that the information in NIRF rankings in the past was manipulated and fraudulent so that those institutions could unjustly promote themselves even after they failed to meet basic medical education standards.
He also alleged that the ranking process lacked transparency since the NBA, instead of collecting data from the government websites, invites institutions to submit data online. Chellamuthu alleged that this data was neither cross-checked nor verified for authenticity, resulting in the publication of manipulated data in the ranking list.
A division bench comprising Justices J Nisha Banu and S Srimathy passed the order after considering the petitioner’s claims that the NIRF rankings are based solely on data submitted by institutions without any independent verification or auditing.
The petitioner stated that the NBA would direct the institutions to upload data, such as student and staff strength, staff salaries, graduation index, placement details, and funds received for research and development, on its web portal. Based on the data, rankings are awarded without any further verification. This was allegedly done just to attract more students and multinational companies.
Careers 360 reported that the senior counsel appearing for the petitioner argued that "Instead of collecting data from the government websites, the NBE invites institutions to submit data online. Malpractices are mainly carried out by private institutions. The evaluation is not genuine, and rankings are awarded based on data received from the institutions. The data submitted is manipulated by NIRF authorities."
The petitioner presented comparative reports of the NIRF rankings and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council's (NAAC) Annual Quality Assurance Report (AQAR), highlighting significant discrepancies.
According to the petitioner, figures related to the number of PhD students, faculty members, and research grants were higher in the NIRF reports compared to the verified AQAR reports. Since the AQAR reports are cross-checked by NAAC's professional committees, the inconsistencies in NIRF data indicate that institutions have manipulated their submissions to get higher rankings, Chellamuthu stated in his plea, as reported by TNIE.
Claiming that the wrong data is leading the reputed state universities out of the NIRF rank list and helping the institutions with low academic quality climb up the ladder, he warned of degrading higher education quality.
"This allows institutions with poor academic quality and infrastructure to attain top rankings, while many reputed state universities are excluded. Such manipulation could harm the quality of higher education in the country," he stated in his plea.
In his plea, he urged the court to direct the Union Ministry and NBA to verify the data submitted by institutions before publishing the rankings. He also called for transparency by disclosing the scoring calculation method.
The court, while granting the interim stay, scheduled the next hearing for April 24 and sought a counter-affidavit from the advocate representing the Union Ministry and NBA.
Also read- Unnecessary medical tests on POCSO survivors cause mental agony: Madras HC
As per the NIRF ranking, the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research is among the top medical colleges in India with the Rank 2, which offers PG Medical Courses. Along with this, JIPMER, SGPIMS, BHU, MMCGGH, Kasturba Medical College, Christian Medical College, Christian Medical College, Dr. DY Patil Vidyapeeth, Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham are also included in the list for PG medical admissions.
Also Read:NEET PG Admissions- Check out Top 10 Medical Colleges As Per NIRF
