SHIVAM YADAV Vs. UNIVERSITY OF DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Petitioner, who is a student pursuing B.A (Hons.) Business Economics from Aryabhatta College, Delhi University, being aggrieved by the notification dated 08.05.2017 issued by the Respondent-University introducing new guidelines governing the passing criteria for the Under-Graduate Courses under the ChoiceBased Credit System, has filed the present petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, seeking issuance of a writ of mandamus for quashing the impugned notification dated 08.05.2017 with a direction to the Respondent/University to declare the result of the Petitioner by applying the rules prevalent at the time of his admission in Aryabhatta College, Delhi University.

(2.) The facts relevant for the adjudication of the present petition are, that the Petitioner had taken admission in the course of B.A (Hons.) Business Economic in Delhi University in 2015. The Petitioner claims that as per the promotion rules of 2015 for the Under-Graduate Courses, 40% of aggregate marks was considered as the eligibility/passing criteria for promotion to the next semester. However, these rules allowed a student who appeared in an odd semester or who was eligible to appear in the odd semester examination but remained absent in any/all of the papers of the said semester, to move on to next even semester irrespective of his/her result in the said examination. However, these rules were deleted in 2015 itself as a result of the changes implemented by the University Grants Commission for introduction of a 10-point grading system known as the Choice-Based Credit System for governing the passing criteria for Under-Graduate Courses. It is contended by the Petitioner that no new rules were further disclosed to the students of the University at that time and the guidelines for this new system were notified only on 08.05.2017.

(3.) With the introduction of this system, the passing criteria of attaining 40% of aggregate marks in numerical value was deleted and replaced by a 10-point grading system with letter grades as per the formula prescribed by the University Grants Commission with minor changes in the computation of grade cut-off. These guidelines also laid down that a student would be eligible for promotion from first year to Second year/IIIrd Semester, provided that he/she passed 50% of papers of Ist Semester and IInd Semester taken together and similarly for promotion from Second year to Third year/Vth Semester.