SUHINDER KAUR Vs. PUNJAB UNIVERSITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner prays for the issue of a writ of Mandamus directing the respondents viz. the Panjab University including its Vice-Chancellor and the Chairman of the Department of Laws to grant her admission to the 3rd Semester of the LL.B. Course. A few facts may be noticed.

(2.) The petitioner graduated from the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar in the year 1989. She secured 65% marks. Thereafter, she passed her M.A. in English Examination from the same University. She secured 51% marks. She also passed the B.Ed. Examination securing approximately 69% marks. She then appeared in the Entrance Examination for admission to the LL.B. Course. She qualified and was admitted to the LL.B. Course of the Guru Nanak Dev University in the Year 1993-94. She passed the 1st Year Examination held in May, 1994 securing 67.17% marks. The petitioner avers that she stood first in this examination. On account of her father's transfer from Amritsar, she applied for permission to migrate to the Panjab University on July 20, 1994. She was interviewed by the Board of Control, Department of Laws. Her case was recommended to the Vice-Chancellor. Vide order dated September 5, 1994, the Vice-Chancellor declined her request for migration. Consequently, she has approached this Court through the present writ petition.

(3.) A written statement has been filed on behalf of the respondents by the Registrar of the University. It has been inter alia averred that the Board of Control of the Department of Laws had considered the request for migration of three candidates, including the petitioner, and decided to recommend that they may be allowed to join the 3rd Semester Course. The case was duly considered by the Dean of University Instruction, the Registrar and the Vice- Chancellor. The request of all the three candidates was declined by the Vice-Chancellor on September 2, 1994 as none of them was entitled to be admitted by migration 'on merit'. It has been further averred that the percentage of marks secured by the petitioner in the Master's Degree Examination was compared with the percentage of marks secured by the last candidate with a Master's Degree admitted to the LL.B. 1st Semester during the session 1993-94. It was found that "the last candidate with Master's Degree admitted to LL.B. 1st Semester in 1993-94 had 70.4% marks (including weightage of 10% of the aggregate marks obtained in the qualifying examination passed from Panjab University)." The petitioner was not entitled to the said weightage as she had passed the qualifying examination from another University. As the marks secured by her in the Master's Degree Examination were less than the marks secured by the last candidate with Master's Degree admitted to LL.B. 1st Semester during the session 1993-94, she was ineligible for migration and her request was accordingly declined by the Vice-Chancellor. Accordingly, it has been prayed that the writ petition has no merit and may be dismissed with costs.