UGC NET Questions (Paper – 1)

Badhita hetu is one where the supposed universal connection between hetu and sadhya is refuted by more powerful means of knowledge. For example, an inference that fire is cold based on some spurious reason is contradicted by direct perceptual experience of fire's heat. In such cases, the hetu cannot be accepted as valid. Hence the fallacy described in the stem is badhita.

Option A:
Option A, savyabhicara, centres on irregular occurrence of the hetu with and without the sadhya, not on contradiction by other pramanas.

Option B:
Option B, satpratipaksha, involves competing reasons of equal strength on both sides of an issue, whereas badhita features clear overruling by a stronger source.

Option C:
Option C is correct because badhita means “defeated” or “overruled,” indicating that the alleged reason is nullified by superior evidence.

Option D:
Option D, asiddha, addresses the absence or non-establishment of the hetu in the paksha, which is a different flaw.

In an asiddha hetu, the middle term is not established as a property of the subject, so the very first condition of a proper hetu fails. The statement “the sky is fragrant because it is a lotus” presupposes that the sky has the property of being a lotus, which is obviously false. Since the subject does not possess the alleged hetu, no inference can legitimately proceed from it. This makes the hetu unproved in the pakṣa.

Option A:
Option A is the classic valid smoke–fire inference, assuming smoke is actually present on the hill; in that case the hetu clearly qualifies the pakṣa and is not asiddha.

Option B:
Option B correctly shows a middle term, “being a lotus,” that is entirely absent from the sky, so the reason fails at the level of pakṣadharmatā and becomes a textbook asiddha hetu.

Option C:
Option C presents a widely accepted reason, because pots are made of clay and that property supports their breakability; here the hetu is well established in the pakṣa.

Option D:
Option D uses a standard Nyāya argument that produced things are non eternal; “produced” is acknowledged as a property of sound, so the hetu is siddha rather than asiddha.