Conduct Supplementary Exams & Publish Pending Results: Engineering Students Move High Court Against Kerala University

A writ petition has been filed before the Kerala High Court seeking directions to the Kerala University to expeditiously conduct supplementary exams in engineering courses for 2013-17 and 2014-18 batches and to publish all pending results within a month.

A couple of B.Tech students, Varun Gopal and Amal Joseph from the said batches, from colleges earlier affiliated to the Kerala University, moved the Court aggrieved by the reluctance exhibited by the University to remediate their grievances.

The petition filed through Advocate Arun Samuel elaborated on the difficulties faced by students with back papers. It stated that around 500 such students from their batches were currently awaiting supplementary exams and publication of results, without which their career prospects were at stake.

This development comes after transfer of certain engineering colleges, earlier affiliated to the Kerala University, to the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University in 2014. Under such circumstances, the students from the 2013-17 and 2014-18 batches continued under the Kerala University.

Although supplementary exams were scheduled to be conducted in April-May 2020, they were postponed indefinitely due to the first wave of COVID-19. Moreover, it was submitted that out of the nine supplementary exams scheduled to be conducted in April 2021, only four were conducted owing to the second wave of the pandemic.

The petition emphasized that the B.Tech (2013) Regulations issued by the Kerala University mandated that examinations were to be held for all the semesters twice a year and that a student who failed to complete the programme within 10 years since the first admission will not be allowed to continue.

Going by the said regulations, the stipulated period of 10 years will expire by 2023 and 2024 for students of the 2013-2017 and 2014-2018 batches, after which they will be forced to quit the course.

The petitioners also expressed concern over the fact that out of 84 exams due to being conducted, only 41 had been conducted so far.

They submitted that a considerable time had already been lost to the pandemic and that a further delay in conducting these supplementary exams and publishing their results would affect their career drastically.

Additionally, attention was brought to the UGC guidelines issued which stated that Universities were at liberty to conduct exams either online or through offline mode. Based on such guidelines, many Universities in the State had conducted online examinations as well. It was thereby contended that the Kerala University could adopt the online mode as well to conduct the said supplementary examinations.

The refusal of the respondent to conduct the examination was alleged to be nothing short of a veritable violation of the Petitioners' fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India.

The petitioners added that a few students had earlier approached the High Court citing refusal by the university to hold supplementary exams whereby pursuant to the Court order, the exams were conducted in 2020. However, the results of these examinations were yet to be released.

Moreover, reliance was placed on the decision of the Court in Venu R v. University of Calicut where it was stressed that the academic calendar had to be adhered to, and that all those associated were dutybound to co-operate in the academic matters with the significant object of protecting interests of students and thereby, interests of the nation at large.

On the aforementioned grounds, the petitioners prayed that the B.Tech Regulations be declared to be binding on the Kerala University of Kerala where 2013-2017 and 2014-2018 batches are concerned, and accordingly direct them to conduct all supplementary exams and publish the results, including the pending ones, as expeditiously as possible.

Case Title: Varun Gopal v. State of Kerala & Ors.