Bachelor Of Computer Application Falls Under Science Stream, UGC's 2014 Notification Has Retrospective Effect: Jharkhand High Court

The Jharkhand High Court has held that a Bachelor of Computer Application (BCA) degree falls under the Science stream. It further held that the UGC's 2014 notification classifying BCA under Science was clarificatory and would operate retrospectively.

A Division Bench of Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad and Justice Sanjay Prasad upheld orders directing the appointment of candidates whose candidature for the post of Graduate Trained Teacher in Physical Education had been rejected by the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC).

The dispute arose from the Combined Graduate Trained Teacher Competitive Examination-2016. The eligibility criteria for Physical Education required a Bachelor's degree with the prescribed marks in Arts, Commerce or Science, along with a recognised qualification in Physical Education.

The candidates held BCA degrees. JSSC took the view that BCA did not fall within Arts, Science or Commerce and rejected their candidature. The writ court disagreed and directed their appointment. The State then moved the Division Bench.

Before the Division Bench, the State argued that the BCA degree did not satisfy the express qualification prescribed in the recruitment advertisement. It also contended that the UGC notification subsequently placing BCA under the Science stream could not benefit candidates who had obtained their degrees before that notification.

The candidates, on the other hand, argued that the notification did not introduce a new classification. According to them, it merely clarified the stream to which existing degrees belonged and was therefore applicable to degrees obtained earlier as well.

The High Court framed the central question as whether the BCA degrees held by the candidates fell within the Science stream. Looking at the UGC notifications, the Bench noted that BCA was already a recognised degree under the UGC's 2009 notification. That notification, however, listed degrees alphabetically and did not specify whether BCA belonged to Science, Arts or Commerce.

The position was clarified in 2014, when the UGC placed Bachelor of Computer Application under the Science stream. The Court attached importance to the notification's own statement that the information had been presented in tabular form “for clarity”. It said this indicated that the UGC was clarifying the position rather than creating something new.

The Bench also referred to the settled principle that a clarificatory or explanatory instrument, which clears doubts or corrects an omission, generally operates retrospectively. It further rejected the State's attempt to treat BCA as falling outside all three streams. The Court noted that the State had failed to establish that BCA did not belong to Science, Arts or Commerce.

The Court concluded:

“The degree of BCA has been recognized by the UGC as under 2009 Notification and by 2014 Notification, the UGC has clarified that BCA comes under Science Stream.”

Accordingly, the Bench decided the issue in favour of the candidates and held that their BCA degrees fell under the Science stream.

Case Title: The State of Jharkhand and Ors v. Abhijeet Kumar Sinha and Ors

Case Number: L.P.A. No. 538 of 2025

Appearance: Mr. Ashutosh Anand, AAG III and Mr. Sahbaj Akhtar for the Appellants; Mr. Amritans Vats, Mr. Arpan Manjash Ekka, Mr. Amartya Choubey and Mr. Shivam Pathak for the writ petitioners; Mr. Sanjoy Piprawall, Mr. Prince Kumar and Mr. Jay Prakash for JSSC; Ms. Kumari Ruchika for NCTE; Mr. Atanu Banerjee for UGC.

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