The Himachal Pradesh High Court has issued a contempt notice to the Vice-Chancellor of National Law University, Shimla for wilful disobedience of its order to address the representation made by one of its students to re-appear and retake the supplementary examination in respect of Economics-II (subject) pertaining to the 2nd Semester in order to clear the backlog paper, at the time of...
The Himachal Pradesh High Court has issued a contempt notice to the Vice-Chancellor of National Law University, Shimla for wilful disobedience of its order to address the representation made by one of its students to re-appear and retake the supplementary examination in respect of Economics-II (subject) pertaining to the 2nd Semester in order to clear the backlog paper, at the time of taking regular exams of 3rd Year.
A bench of Justice Ajay Mohan Goel was "appalled" by the fact that the VC had delegated the student's representation to the University Registrar, in face of court's "clear cut direction" to her (VC) to decide the representation.
“As this Court is now satisfied that the Vice Chancellor of the University has committed willful disobedience of the Court order, Registry is directed to register a Contempt case against the Vice Chancellor and issue a show cause notice to the Vice Chancellor as to why the Vice Chancellor should not be tried for willful disobedience,” it thus ordered.
Mitesh Jorwal had also invoked the High Court's writ jurisdiction seeking permission to attend the classes of 3rd year (5th and 6th Semesters respectively) which have already commenced. His plea was disposed of with a direction to the VC to sympathetically consider his case within a period of two days. Soon after, the Registrar rejected his representation, prompting him to file an execution petition before the High Court.
"No direction was given by this Court to the Registrar to either hear the petitioner or decide the representation," the Court declared at the outset.
The VC in her affidavit said that the power was delegated to the Registrar due to her personal unavailability. Unconvinced, the Court issued notice to the VC to furnish an explanation by the next date of hearing as to why contempt proceedings be not initiated against her for willful disobedience of the Court order.
Justice Goel emphasized that the VC could have sought a modification or extension through a formal application before the Court.
The matter has been listed again on March 11 for further consideration.
Case Title: Mitesh Jorwal vs. HPNLU, Shimla