Failure to join a UGC fellowship by superannuation automatically withdraws the award.

The appellant, a Professor in the University of Madras, was awarded a UGC BSR Faculty Fellowship by letter dated 7 November 2019.

The award required him to join by the date of his superannuation and limited the Fellowship’s duration by reference to the age of 68 and a three-year period.

He retired on 25 June 2020. Although he claimed to have joined the Fellowship about two months later, the University’s joining report was sent to the UGC only in 2022, by which time the Fellowship had been withdrawn.

After the Single Judge dismissed his writ petition seeking recognition of the joining report and permission to pursue the Fellowship, he appealed.

1. Whether the appellant’s alleged joining after his superannuation date entitled him to the BSR Faculty Fellowship, despite the award’s joining condition.

2. Whether the appellant could be granted the Fellowship when the prescribed Fellowship period had elapsed by the time his claim was considered.

No statute or judicial precedent was identified as the basis of the decision.

The Court applied the express conditions in the UGC’s award letter: the appellant was required to join by the date of superannuation, and the Fellowship was time-limited, subject to the specified age and duration limits.

The Court treated compliance with the joining condition as mandatory and held that failure to satisfy it meant the award could not enure to the appellant’s benefit.

The Court found that the appellant did not join by his superannuation date of 25 June 2020; his asserted later joining did not satisfy the award condition, and the joining report was not communicated to the UGC until 2022.

It held that the Fellowship had therefore stood withdrawn and, independently, that the applicable three-year period had elapsed, so granting the requested relief would no longer serve the Fellowship’s purpose.

Finding no illegality or infirmity in the Single Judge’s order, it dismissed the writ appeal and the interim application, with no order as to costs.