Patna HC Imposes ₹5K Cost Each On VCs Of 3 Universities In PIL Over Delay In Conducting Exams, Declaring Results

The bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Partha Sarthy imposed Rs. 5K costs as the VCs of Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Magadh University, and Veer Kunwar Singh University as they failed to furnish details sought by the court seeking their explanation regarding a delay in the declaration of results in their respective universities.

It may be noted that a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea has been filed by Petitioners Vivek Raj, Saurav Kumar, and Shwet Kumar Singh through Advocate Shashwat praying for a direction to the 10 State Universities to conduct undergraduate and post-graduate level examinations in a time-bound manner as per the guidelines of the UGC.

Dealing with the case on November 4, 2022, the High Court asked the VCs of all the 10 Universities arraigned as respondents in the plea. The Court had also warned of imposing Rs. 5 Costs on the VCs if they fail to do so.

Now, on December 6, 7 of the 10 VCs filed their respective affidavits/responses specifying the timeline of declaring the results of the course being conducted by them, however, the VCs of Magadh University and Veer Kunwar Singh University failed to file any response in the matter.

Also, the VC of Lalit Narayan Mithila University, though filed the affidavit, did not furnish complete information and therefore, 3 VCs were directed to pay a cost of Rs.5000/- to be recovered from their personal salary and to be deposited with the Patna High Court Advocate's Clerk Welfare Association.

Also, the VCs of Patliputra University and Purnea University have been asked to file their personal affidavit indicating the reason for the delay in conducting the examination and declaring the results for various courses undertaken by the students in their universities.

The matter would be heard next on December 14, 2022.

Significantly, the plea states that as per the data, over 7 lakh students are affected by session backlogs in the academic calendar as several state universities in Bihar defaulted in conducting examinations and publishing results of several undergraduate and postgraduate programs.

Case title - Vivek Raj vs. State of Bihar and Ors.

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