In the Matter of P Raman Vs Government of Tamil Nadu and Ors, the Bench of Supreme Court of India held that any post graduate degree from any Open University without undergoing the basic degree course is said to be Invalid. A Bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Sanjay Karol noted that -

“The High Court in the impugned judgment referred to in N. Ramesh v. Sibi Madan Gabriel reported in (2008) 3 MLJ 255 and held that post graduate degree obtained through Open University without undergoing basic degree is not acceptable. The decision of the High Court was upheld by this Court in Annamalai University v. Secretary to Government, Information and Tourism Department reported in (2009) 4 SCC 590”,

CASE BRIEF-

In the said matter, the Petitioner in the year 2008, applied a notice for direct recruitment issued by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission. The Notification contained details of essential educational qualifications required for the post. The petitioner had obtained a post graduate degree from an open university without, however, pursuing any under graduate course prior to it.

Relying on the Annamalai University case, the High Court had held that a candidate who obtained post graduate degree would be considered valid only if the said degree is obtained after undergoing the basic degree course.

When the Petitioner moved to the Supreme Court of India, the Court noted that memorandum doesn’t confer any benefit on candidates such as petitioner, who had obtained post graduate qualification without undergoing the basic degree course.

Noting that the High Court’s decision did not suffer from any “infirmity”, the Bench proceeded to dismiss the SLPs.

While Senior Advocate R Balasubramaniam appeared for the petitioner, Senior advocate P Wilson appeared for the respondents, State of Tamil Nadu.