Punjab and Haryana HC affirm PU's decision to scrap law entrances

The court found that varsity had powers to scrap the test though the decision is open to judicial scrutiny and review. The court also found that suggestion for online test, too, was considered but in view of the inability to ensure fairness, it was not considered.

The Punjab and Haryana high court has upheld the Panjab University’s (PU’s) decision of scrapping entrance tests for law courses offered by the University Institute of Legal Studies (UILS) and department of laws.

The High Court bench of Justice A G Masih and Justice Ashok Kumar Verma said that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has created exceptional, unexpected and peculiar circumstance, the opinion formed by the PU committee constituted that congregation of a large number of people at the only center, which the varsity has for holding the examination could cause the spread of the virus and, thus, is neither suitable nor feasible to hold the entrance test.

It further said that the residents and other students on campus would be put to risk apart from the staff invigilators, candidates and those accompanying them is not unfounded. Therefore, the decision appears to be in the public interest, which cannot be faulted, especially when varsity says it has been done only for one year.

The high court judgment came on a clutch of petitions filed to challenge the varsity move to scrap exam for its five-year law course at UILS and LLM course at the department of laws. Petitions were filed unsuccessfully last month before single judge benches too. The petitioners had argued that various competitions/admission tests have been held by different institutions in the country.

The court found that varsity had powers to scrap the test though the decision is open to judicial scrutiny and review. The court also found that suggestion for online test, too, was considered but in view of the inability to ensure fairness, it was not considered. Consultation with other government agencies and various government universities were also carried out, where the reports again came against holding the online entrance examination. The court also took note of the fact that steps have been taken for moderation/rationalisation of the marks obtained by candidates in the qualifying examination coming from different boards.

“If a person expects to lead a healthy infection free life, a duty is also cast upon him/her to ensure that he/she does not on his/her part resort to anything which would endanger the health of other fellow beings. The court is also required to follow the same and ensure that it is not violated,” the bench said. It further added that the court would not issue any such a direction which would be contrary to the guidelines laid down by the authorities.

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