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Information sought:

The Appellant filed an online RTI Application dated 27.07.2021 seeking information on the following two points:

"The Context-

1) Rajasthan Govt. (Commissioner College Education, Jaipur) is asking for API scores even from those teachers who have been on UGC Teacher Research Fellowship(TRF) for doing Ph.D. which is leading to denial of promotion benefits to the concerned faculties. ( copy enclosed)

2) A TRF Fellow is required to be in full time engagement in Ph.D. work during the time of fellowship and he/she fulfils all the UGC mandated requirements of research papers and conferences before the submission of thesis.

3) As per the application format for TRF, all the three concerned parties i.e. the UGC, the Government and the concerned College gave written assurance to protect the promotion/increment benefits related to the tenure of TRF.(copy enclosed)

4) UGC public notice of 5 sept. 2018, relaxes APIs for duration of different types of leaves and deputation. TRF or academic leave is not mentioned. (copy enclosed) Kindly reply to following queries-

Q1 . Are TRF fellows excluded from the grading assessment of API related to the duration of their fellowship in the matter of promotion under CAS? (Relaxation/Exclusion means extrapolating same API score of non TRF period over TRF period? Reply Yes OR No Q2. If the answer to the Q. 1 is No, then how the calculation of API scores or grading assessment will be done for the specific duration of TRF for any faculty member?

Reply Kindly, issue a separate circular to clarify the API calculation method for TRF duration of the faculty members. Due to lack of clarity, the state govt. is refusing the promotion benefit by strictly demanding the teaching related API scores even for the TRF period. This is obviously impossible to fulfil. UGC timely action is the only hope for the teachers who did Ph.D. under TRF."

The CPIO vide online reply dated 10.08.2021, informed to the Appellant as under:

At the instance of the Commission whether there are any specific rules for calculating API scores for TRF duration of Faculty members, the Respondent submitted that there are no explicit rules regarding the same. She further refers to UGC public notice dated 05.09.2018, regarding calculation of API scores for all such periods of duration which have been spent by the teacher on different kinds of paid leaves such as Maternity Leave, Child Care Leave, Study Leave, Medical Leave, Extraordinary Leave and Deputation and the same has been sent to the Appellant vide letter dated 10.11.2022. She further advises Appellant to give a representation in UGC's Pay Scale Section.