NAREN V NIMBAL Vs. GULBARGA UNIVERSITY GULBARGA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard petitioner's learned Advocate, learned Advocate who represents the University.

(2.) The petitioner at the relevant time, was a medical student and the record indicates that he had passed his second M.B.B.S. exam on the fourth attempt. As far as the third M.B.B.S. is concerned, it consisted of three parts and on the first attempt, the petitioner failed in all the three parts. He thereafter reappeared for the exam and on the next occasion, was successful. For purposes of considering his eligibility for post-graduate the University regulation was sought to be applied against him. The relevant part of the resolution prescribes that the student shall not be eligible if he has taken more than four attempts in the course of his M.B.B.S. Course. The authorities completed the three unsuccessful attempts as far as the second M.B.B.S. Course was concerned and treated the failure in the three parts of the third M.B.B.S. Course as three more attempts and thereby held that the petitioner was not eligible. It is this decision that has been challenged in the present petition.

(3.) The petitioner's learned Advocate submitted that while interpreting the regulation in question, the Court will have to construe the term "attempt" as being the number of times the student has taken the examination and that this should not be held to mean the number of subjects or phases that the student has been unsuccessful in. To illustrate more clearly, the petitioner's learned Advocate submitted that as long as the various subjects constitute part of the same examination, irrespective of how many subjects the student has failed in, it will have to be treated as one unsuccessful attempt. His contention possibly is that while construing the principle, it is not the subject wise consideration, but the number of examinations at which the student has appeared that will have to be added up. Learned Advocate seeks to place reliance on two decisions of this Court, the first one in the case of N. Vijayendra Simha v Gulbarga University and Others and the second one in the case of Dr. Sharanamma M. Patil v Registrar, Gulbarga University and Others. In both these cases, a similar issue had come up for consideration and this Court upheld the view that it is examination wise that the number of attempts will have to be counted and not subject wise. In otherwords, this Court took the view that even if a student has failed in more than one subject in a particular examination, that it will still have to be considered as one attempt. In the second of these decisions, the Court had occasion to place reliance on a resolution of the Academic Council which followed the decision of the High Court in the earlier case whereunder the Academic Council had itself accepted that position.