Plea alleges data manipulation, lack of transparency in NIRF rankings; Madras HC stays 2025 list

NEW DELHI: Following a plea alleging malpractices and lack of transparency in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranking, the Madras High Court has imposed an interim stay restraining the Ministry of Education and the National Board of Accreditation (NBE) from publishing the NIRF ranking 2025.

The Madurai Bench comprising Justices J Nisha Banu and S Srimathy passed the order on a writ petition filed by one C Chellamuthu of Tamil Nadu’s Dindigul. In his plea, the petitioner alleged that the NIRF rankings are declared without any verification or auditing of the data submitted by the institutions, and that many are providing false information to improve their ranking just to attract more students and companies.

The senior counsel appearing for the petitioner argued that instead of collecting data from the government websites, the NBE invites institutions to submit data online. Malpractices are mainly carried out by private institutions, the plea alleged. "The evaluation is not genuine and rankings are awarded based on data received from the institutions. The data submitted are manipulated by NIRF authorities," the counsel submitted. The petitioned had submitted a representation on November 2 last year to which there was no response, following which he filed a petition.

The petitioner reportedly submitted data on comparison of the NIRF reports with the Annual Quality Assurance Report (AQAR) issued by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), and claimed that the figures in relation to the number of PhD students, faculties, and funds have been shown higher in NIRF than AQAR.

Verified NAAC report, false NIRF data

Pointing to the fact that AQAR documents are verified by the NAAC expert panels, Chellamuthu hinted at the manipulation of NIRF data submitted by the universities, which is not screened, in his plea, as per some media reports. Claiming that the wrong data is leading the reputed state universities out of the NIRF rank list and helping the institutions with low academic quality climb up the ladder, he warned of degrading higher education quality.

C Chellamuthu sought court’s directions to NBA and the Centre to publish the NIRF 2025 ranking only after the verification of data provided by the institutes and to disclose the calculation method. The respondents have sought time to file a counter-affidavit and the Madras HC has adjourned the case for April 24.