KAMALA BANERJEE Vs. UNIVERSITY OF CALCUTTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) We have felt some embarrassment in dealing with this appeal, because while it is clear that the appellant has a just grievance, it is equally clear that no relief can be given to her in the form prayed for, nor indeed any relief in the present proceedings.

(2.) The facts are as follows. The appellant was a candidate at the Bachelor of Teaching Examination of the University of Calcutta for 1954. She was appearing from the David Hare Training College, for the candidates who were taking their examination in Calcutta, the place of the examination was the Ashutosh Building. The candidates were accommodated in various rooms in the first floor and the second floor, a large number being given seats in a room called the Ashutosh Hall. The appellant had her seat in Boom No. 11 which is on the second floor and in the southern flank of the building and it is contiguous to the Ashutosh Hall.

(3.) The examination in the first two papers went off smoothly. But on 14-5-1954, when the examination in the third paper, History of Education, was scheduled to take place, an ugly and discreditable incident occurred. As soon as the question papers were handed out, there were angry protests from a large section of the candidates who began to shout that the questions were too stiff, that they were of such a nature as could not be answered within the time limited and that they included questions on subjects outside the syllabus. The malcontents did not rest satisfied with merely voicing their protests, but resorted to methods which have nowadays come to be known as direct action. They left their seats, apparently bent on wrecking the examination and while shouting slogans of various kinds, began to pull off those of the candidates who were still sticking to their seats by physical force. The scene lias been described by the Controller of Examinations as an absolute pandemonium'. After some time, however, the tumult and shouting seem to have subsided a little, when some of the men candidates began to return singly or in groups and they sought permission to continue sitting for the examination. Their request was acceded to and they were put inside the Ashutosh Hall and an adjoining room on the same floor where they could sit for the examination. What happened next can be best described in the language of the Controller of Examinations who made a report to the Syndicate on 20-5-1954: "At about 11.5 a.m., however, a large crowd, about 100 strong, assembled at the entrance of the hall, banged the wooden door violently and was about to break it open. The Assistant-in-Charge of the centre, the invigilators and the peons of the post Graduate Office altogether about 12 in number who were guarding the Hall from outside, were trying to resist the mob, but were soon over powered, and the said Assistant was caught hold of by his neck and was so violently shaken that he was about to fall down unconscious when some other persons rescued him away from the crowd.