PRADEEPKUMAR CHAUHAN Vs. REGISTRAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) There is no dispute that the petitioner herein had passed the B.A. degree examination from the Kakatiya University, Warangal, by appearing in one sitting examination in the year 1991. There is no dispute that the said course of B.A. which was passed by the petitioner from the Kakatiya University, Warangal was a course of three years' duration, known as B.A. (External), but there are no yearwise examinations and a student who joins such course of B.A. in Kakatiya University may pass this three years' duration course by appearing only once in an examination meaning thereby that this examination of B.A. passed by the petitioner from the Kakatiya University is a course in which a candidate after passing the 10 + 2, appears only once in the examination so as to obtain the degree of B.A., but in Gujarat University and certain other Universities also, the student has to pass three examinations in three years after passing the 10 + 2. The duration of the course of three years for such B.A. examination or that the candidate has to wait for three years after passing the 10+2 for the purpose of appearing in the examination of B.A. for such course is not important; what is important is as to whether such degree of B.A. has been obtained by appearing in three yearly examinations or only by passing one examination which is the examination as a whole for the entire course of three years? After obtaining the degree of B.A. from the Kakatiya University in one sitting examination in three years duration, it is the petitioner's case that he obtained the degree of LL.B. from Chaudhari Charan Singh University, formerly known as Meerut University. The course of LL.B. which has been passed by the petitioner from the aforesaid University of Meerut and such degree of LL.B. as has been passed by the petitioner was a degree of three years course. The petitioner being desirous of admission to prosecute the course of LL.M. while serving at the Air Force Station, Vadsar in Mehsana District as a Corporal, applied for admission to the LL.M. course to the Gujarat University. The Gujarat University did not consider the petitioner to be eligible for admission to LL.M. course and therefore, the petitioner preferred Special Civil Application No. 5930 of 1997 wherein the order to the following effect was passed on 30th April 1998 by this Court (Coram: M.S.Parikh, J.):

(2.) Whereas the petitioner's eligibility for LL.M. course was not agreed by the Gujarat University on the ground that the petitioner had not passed the qualifying examination for admission to the LL.B. degree itself according to the equivalence of the Gujarat University inasmuch as the degree of B.A. obtained by the petitioner was a degree obtained on the basis of passing the examination in one sitting and that he had not appeared in three examinations for the B.A. course after passing the 10+2 and had obtained that degree by appearing in only one examination for the whole course of three years; it was in this context that this Court directed the Gujarat University to reconsider through its appropriate authority to take a decision on the equivalence of the examination of LL.B. passed by the petitioner on the basis of which he claims admission to the Post Graduate course of LL.M. of the Gujarat University. There is no dispute that so far as the LL.B. degree as has been obtained by the petitioner from the Chaudhari Charan Singh University, formerly known as Meerut University the same is recognised by the Gujarat University also. The Standing Committee of the equivalence of examination of the Gujarat University took a decision on 3rd July 1998 after this Court's order dated 30/04/1998 and the same was conveyed to the petitioner on 4/07/1998. The said decision taken by the Committee of equivalence of the examination was the same as it had taken earlier. The petitioner, therefore, sought revival of the original Special Civil Application No.5930 of 1997 through Misc.Civil Application No.1019 of 1998 with the prayer to annex the order dated 3rd July 1998 therein and thus, he also challenged the subsequent decision taken by the Committee of the equivalence of the examination of the Gujarat University dated 3rd July 1998. The order dated 30/04/1998 was recalled and the Special Civil Application No.5930 was revived with the liberty to the petitioner to annex the order dated 3/07/1998 rendered by the respondent University and was permitted to challenge the same in the said petition. The order to this effect was passed on 9/07/1998 in Misc. Civil Application No.1019 of 1998. It appears that thereafter the petition came up before the Court on 4/08/1998. In the revived Special Civil Application No.5930 of 1997, on 4/08/1998, an order was passed directing the University to re-examine the petitioner's case. The matter was once again decided with a liberty to the petitioner to make one more representation to the University annexing all the documents in support of the same and that the decision of the University shall be communicated to the petitioner and the petition was disposed of. While passing this order on 4/08/1998, the Court had also observed that:

(3.) Thereafter the University considered the matter once again and an order dated 9/08/1998 has been passed which is impugned in this petition. In this petition which is filed on 21/09/1998, the Rule was issued on 2 2/09/1998 by this Court and thereafter an affidavit-in-reply dated 30/12/1998 was filed along with the copies of the replies which had been filed in the earlier Special Civil Application and the decision of the Equivalence Committee. It appears that during the pendency of the petition, the notice was issued to the University Grants Commission and the Kakatiya University and a counter affidavit dated 3rd April 1999 has been filed by the Registrar of Kakatiya University and the petitioner has filed a rejoinder dated 1/02/1999. Mr.Patel, learned Counsel for the petitioner has also made a reference to a counter affidavit dated 23/12/1998 which had been filed on behalf of the Kakatiya University in Civil Application No. 11344 of 1998 in this Special Civil Application No.7998 of 1998.