Students cannot suffer for erroneous decision of varsity: Karnataka HC

The court observed this while setting aside the decision of the Kuvempu University to annul the results it announced for the distant education course for 2019-20

The High Court of Karnataka said that the students cannot be made to suffer for the erroneous decision of the university or its officers.

The court observed this while setting aside the decision of the Kuvempu University to annul the results it announced for the distant education course for the academic year 2019-20, based on internal assessment in view of Covid-19 pandemic.

The petitions were filed by two students pursuing BCom course in distance education mode and also by several centers offering degree courses under the Kuvempu University. The students had been admitted to the course for the academic year 2019-20. Since the university could not conduct examinations in the months of May/June 2020 in view of the pandemic, the Registrar (Evaluation) had taken a decision on behalf of the university to assess the performance based on internal assessments. The students were thus declared passed and admitted to a second-year degree course.

Another decision

However, in the month of April 2022, the university took another decision to cancel the results and conduct fresh examinations. The university argued that the decision taken by the Registrar (Evaluation) was against the provisions of the Karnataka State Universities Act as it is against the decision of the Syndicate.

Justice M I Arun said that though as per Section 29 of the Karnataka State Universities Act, Syndicate is empowered to make arrangements for the conduct of the examination, under peculiar facts and circumstances of the case, the students cannot be made to suffer due to the erroneous decision of the university or its officers.

“These changes would cause undue hardship to the students. Further, it is not the case of the university that a similar decision to pass the students based upon the internal assessments has not been taken by other universities or such a decision is against the statute and is illegal. It is their contention that the decision taken was not procedurally correct and the mischief was played by the Registrar (Evaluation). If that is the case, the university is always at liberty to initiate appropriate action against the erring officer. However, it would be inappropriate to punish the students for the same,” the court said.