HC dismisses plea to publish NIRF rankings after comparing institutions' and govt.'s data

The Hindu

10-05-2025

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court dismissed the petition that sought a direction to the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) to publish the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranking after comparing and verifying the data submitted by institutions with the data in government records and to disclose the calculation method.
The court was hearing the petition filed by C. Chellamuthu of Oddanchatram in Dindigul district, who claimed that the NIRF ranking was totally without any basis and it was misleading the students. He said the NIRF was launched by the NBA on the directions of the Ministry of Education for evaluating higher education institutions in the country. The NBA published the NIRF rankings of colleges every year, he said.
The rankings were based on methodologies that were not disclosed and did not reflect the genuine academic excellence of the institutions. The evaluation was flawed, and the rankings were awarded based on the data received from the institutions. The data submitted was manipulated. There was no transparency or accountability regarding the data submitted by the institutions, the petitioner alleged.
He said instead of collecting data from government websites, institutions were invited to submit data online and malpractices were predominantly committed by private institutions.
The Centre told the Division Bench of Justices J. Nisha Banu and S. Srimathy that a separate scientific method, prescribed by an expert body, was being followed.
The court observed that upon perusal of the materials available on record, it was seen that the petition was premature. There was no data before the court to compare and determine the correctness of the rankings. The court was not inclined to entertain the petition, it observed, adding that if the petitioner was aggrieved after the publication of the list, he might challenge it with the evidence.