ASHOK KUMAR THAKUR Vs. UNIVERSITY OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by special leave from an order of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh dismissing a writ petition of the appellant concerns a young college boy who is now in the unhappy position where at least two years of his academic life are found to have been wasted in very unfortunate circumstances. The short facts of the case are as follows.

(2.) The appellant-petitioner (hereinafter described merely as 'petitioner') passed the Class X examination in 1970 from Bishop Cotton School. Simla. On 31 July 1970 the petitioner applied for admission to Government College, Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh) in Class XI which is ordinarily called the Pre-University class. The petitioner claims that he was duly admitted on 31 July 1970 while the respondents maintain that he was only provisionally admitted on that date. The following notes and endorsements appear on the admission form of the petitioner submitted by him for admission to the Pre-University class:

(3.) The point involved is very short. So far as facts are concerned, there is little scope for doubt that the petitioner was indeed short of the required percentage of attendance in regard to the lectures in some subjects. The petitioner sought to make out a case that the petitioner has not been given credit for the classes he attended when he was first admitted to the Bilaspur College provisionally subject to the production of certain documents. In paragraph 10 of the petition, the petitioner made out a specific case that "the non-counting of the lectures attended by the petitioner during the aforesaid period of 16th of August, 1970, till 13th of October, 1970" was illegal. This has been denied by the respondents. We ourselves had an opportunity of examining the attendance registers and we are satisfied that the lectures attended by the petitioner during this period were counted while calculating his attendance figures. The complaint of the petitioner on this ground is therefore baseless. Mr. Datta appearing for the petitioner tried to make out a case that he had attended some classes between 31 July 1970 and 12 August 1970 and his attendance during this period had not been recorded by the college authorities. This is a completely new case made up by the petitioner and we cannot take any notice of it. It is quite possible that non-recording of his attendance during this period may be explained by the fact that he did not actually attend any class during the period. In any event, the case that he made out in the petition has been denied by the respondents and we are satisfied on examination of the records that the petitioner's complaint is baseless.