ROHIT RAKESH Vs. INDIRA GANDHI NATIONAL OPEN UNIVERSITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner seeks a mandamus directing the respondent University to issue to the petitioner degree of B.Sc. (Hospitality and Hotel Administration) course undertaken and cleared by the petitioner. THE petitioner also seeks damages of '50,000/- for withholding his degree. It is the case of the petitioner that he has done three years diploma course in Hotel Management from Durgapur Society of Management Science (Durgapur Society), approved by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE); that after working for about one and a half years in Hotel Claridges, Delhi, he joined the respondent University for obtaining the degree aforesaid in B.Sc. (Hospitality and Hotel Administration); that he appeared in the examination held of the said course in November, 2007 and in June, 2009 and in the result declared on the internet on 18 th October, 2009, his course status was described as "complete". He however contends that he was not issued the degree inspite of reminders and legal notices.

(2.) NOTICE of the petition was issued and the pleadings have been completed. The counsels have been heard.

(3.) THE counsel for the petitioner has based his argument on Shri Krishnan Vs. THE Kurukshetra University (1976) 1 SCC 311 wherein a candidate who was allowed to take the examination notwithstanding not having the requisite attendance and notwithstanding having not submitted the NOC from his employer for pursuing the course, was held to be entitled to degree on the ground that power to withdraw candidature before examination cannot be exercised after the candidate has appeared in the examination.