DEVINDRA KUMAR Vs. PANJAB UNIVERSITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HAVING failed to persuade the University to award 8 grace marks in the hope that the Petitioner shall be able to secure a Second Division in the MA. Examination, he has approached this Court through the present writ petition.

(2.) BRIEF reference to the sequence of events is necessary. The Petitioner appeared in M.A. (English) Part 1 Examination in April, 1982. He secured 192 marks out of 400. He then appeared in M.A. Part II examination in April, 1983 and secured 184 marks out of 400. He thus secured a total of 370 marks out of 800. Under Regulation 13.1 of the Panjab University Regulations, a candidate who has qualified for the award of M.A. degree from the Panjab University is allowed to re -appear as a private candidate in the paper/s in which he wants to improve upon his previous performance. The Petitioner appeared in two papers viz. I and II of M.A. Part II for improving upon his previous performance in July, 1984. He succeeded in securing 16 extra marks. As a result he secured 200 marks out of 400 in M.A. Part II giving him an aggregate of 392 marks out of 800, instead of the total of 376 marks, which he had secured in the year 1983. Thereafter, the Petitioner applied for re -evaluation of his two papers of M.A. Part II in which he had appeared in April, 1984. As a result of re -evaluation his score in Paper I remained unchanged, but in the other paper viz. Paper IV his marks were reduced from 51 out of 100 to 43 out of 100. Consequently, the University declared his result with an aggregate of 384 marks out of 800 instead of the aggregate of 392 marks. The Petitioner applied to the University for award of 8 grace marks. The claim of the Petitioner was rejected by the University, - -vide order dated January 13, 1986, a copy of which has been produced by the Petitioner as Annexure P.3. It is apt to quote the order, which reads as under:

(3.) AGGRIEVED by the action of the University in declining to award grace marks to the Petitioner, he has filed the present petition. The order reproduced above has been challenged being violative of the Regulations of the Panjab University. The only prayer made in the petition is for the award of 8 grace marks.