Justices AM Khanwilkar & Dinesh Maheshwari Recuse From Hearing NLSIU's Petition Against HC Order To Promote Student

A Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Aniruddha Bose heard the matter In today's hearing,

On 20 November 2020, the Karnataka High Court had set aside an order passed by the NLSIU denying a law student admission to the fourth year B.A LL.B (HONS), on account of him failing in a subject.

A Bench of Justice Krishna S Dixit allowed the writ petition filed by Hruday P. B, son of sitting Karnataka High Court judge Justice PB Bajanthri, and directed the NLSIU to assess and award marks to the petitioner's Project Work in question. The order states that the Petitioner shall be allowed to keep the term by way of carryover/carry forward, disregarding the attendance shortage, if any.

The student was declared to have secured "F Grade" in Child Rights Law examination held on March 13, since he was not given any mark because of alleged 'plagiarism' of the project work in question; he was also not allowed to take Special Repeat Examination of third trimester in the third year.

The Court referred to Clause 4 of Regulation III of the B.A LL.B (Hons.) Academic and Examinations Regulations of 2009 and said:

"There is absolutely no material on record to show that the subject teacher having found the evidence of plagiarism had referred the matter to the UGC Chairman in writing and had sent a written intimation to the student. The petitioner came to know of the alleged plagiarism only after enquiry with the Registry of the University when his exam result was not announced; this act of the University constitutes a grave error apparent on the face of the record."

It added:

"The entire episode of so called 'plagiarism' is framed on the basis of a few notoriously cryptic mails exchanged between the Course Teacher and the Exam Department, detrimentally keeping the petitioner in darkness."