NARENDRA GUPTA Vs. UNIVERSITY OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AS this writ petition involves a very short question, the main writ petition was taken up for hearing today with the consent of learned counsel for the parties.

(2.) THE petitioner appeared at the Second Year T. D. C. Science Examination held in the first week of June, 1983. On June 7, 1983 when the examination of Physics first paper was being conducted, a Flying Squad of the University of Rajasthan entered the Examination Hall and asked the candidates to hand over papers and other incriminating articles in their possession. THE petitioner handed over to the members of the Flying Squad a piece of paper, which, according to him. was inadvertently kept in the pocket of his trousers. THE members of the Flying Squad took the paper and made a report that a hand written paper was recovered from the right hand pocket of the trousers of the petitioner. This statement was corroborated by the Centre Superintendent, who made an additional observation that the behaviour of the candidate remained satisfactory throughout the query. THE Standing Committee for unfair-means cases of the University, after considering the case of the petitioner decided that the examination of the petitioner in Physics first paper be cancelled and he may be treated to have obtained zero mark in that paper. However, as the petitioner obtained 52 marks out of 67 in the remaining two papers of Physics and 45 marks out of 50 in the practical, the cancellation of the Physics first paper did not materially affect the result of the petitioner inasmuch as he passed in the first division obtaining 366 marks out of 450, which are more than 80%. in the Second year T. D. C. Science Examination, 1983 of the University of Rajasthan. On passing the Third Year Science Examination, 1984 also in the first division, the petitioner obtained third position in the University in the B. Sc. Examination having obtained 735 marks out of 900, even after cancellation of the Physics first paper of Second Year T. D. C. Science Examination, 1983.

(3.) IT should undoubtedly be emphasised that the use of unfair means by students at the examinations needs to be curbed with a strong hand and those found guilty of using or trying to use unfair means should be severely dealt with, but what is to be taken care of in doing so is that merely because of a highly technical interpretation of the relevant provisions, punishment should not be imposed upon those candidates who do not deserve to be punished on the brilliant academic career of some bright students may not be used in out zeal to eradicate the evil of using unfair means. If it appears to the University authorities that either the candidate has used unfair means or even if he was likely to utilise the material available with him in case he would not have been detected at the proper time by the Invigilator or the Flying Squad or other authority, then there can be no dispute that such a candidate, who could be presumed to have an evil design or an evil intention of using unfair means should not be spared but should be squarely punished. But as I have already observed above, in the present case, the Head Examiner after taking into consideration the question paper of Physics first paper and the paper recovered from the possession of the petitioner, was clearly of the opinion that not only the candidate did not make use of the material, but he could not have made use of the same. This was because the material found in possession of the petitioner had no relevance to the questions appearing in the Physics first paper of the Second Year T. D. C. Science Examination of 1983, although the said material related generally to the syllabus.