High Court of Punjab and HaryanaCWP/23962/2023allowed

Dev Sehgal v. Panjab University Chandigarh And Others

2024-05-01Mr. Justice Vikas Bahl28 pages

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As has been noticed in the order dated 19.10.2023, the impugned order/communication dated 25.09.2023 (Annexure P18) is not in conformity with the judgment dated 06.09.2023 passed by this Court in CWP154712023 (Annexure P16) in the first round of litigation. In case, the respondentUniversity had complied with the directions of this Court given in the order dated 06.09.2023 (Annexure P 16), then, the present situation would not have arisen. On account of noncompliance of the directions given by this Court in the first round of litigation, this Court, after prima facie finding weight in the arguments of the learned Senior counsel for the applicantpetitioner, was pleased to issue notice of motion vide order dated 19.10.2023 and in case, the

relief sought by the applicantpetitioner in the present application is not granted, then, the same would cause irreparable loss to the applicantpetitioner. ? - /) -

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+ D 6 '; 6> "= "When he reached at his sitting place, he found that some written notes were lying there at the table, he picked up the same just to throw outside the room and in this process, the Supervisory Staff caught the appellant by saying that he was using the notes for cheating, whereas it is admitted fact that appellant had not written even a single word on his answer sheet prior to that he was implicated in the UMC case, otherwise the appellant has nothing to do with the notes already lying there on the table. After that, the appellant tried his level best to convince the Supervisory Staff that the appellant has nothing to do with these notes and he was just throwing the same outside the room and also stated that there is not a single word written on the answer sheet. But the Supervisor Staff did not listen the hue and cry of the appellant and the made a UMC case against the appellant.

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< ++++++ The appellant was not even aware about the fact that whether the notes were relating to his subject or not. Even at that time of alleged occurrence, the appellant has not even written a single word on the answer sheet. / / F+++++ !

That the appellant has been continuously attending the classes of 6th semester and had prepared by doing hard work for appearing in the exam, but University deprived the appellant to appear in the exam of 6th semester by passing the impugned order/letter dated 02.05.2023, which caused great hardship and mental agony to the appellant as he was continuously attending the class and prepared himself for the examination and now at this stage, the deprivation of the appellant to appear in the exam will caused great prejudice to the appellant.

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32.3. The Committee shall then reconsider the case. (

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: Thus, while reconsidering the matter, the competent authority would consider all the said aspects also.

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e. Reasons reassure that discretion has been exercised by the decision maker on relevant grounds and by disregarding extraneous considerations.

f. Reasons have virtually become as indispensable a component of a decision making process as observing principles of natural justice by judicial, quasijudicial and even by administrative bodies.

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737).

n. Since the requirement to record reasons emanates from the broad doctrine of fairness in decision making, the said requirement is now virtually a component of human rights and was considered part of Strasbourg Jurisprudence. See (1994) 19 EHRR 553, at 562 para 29 and Anya vs. University of Oxford, 2001 EWCA Civ 405, wherein the Court referred to Article 6 of European Convention of Human Rights which requires, "adequate and intelligent reasons must be given for judicial decisions". o. In all common law jurisdictions judgments play a vital role in setting up precedents for the future. Therefore, for development of law, requirement of giving reasons for the decision is of the essence and is virtually a part of "Due Process".0

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reasons, at least in brief, mentioned in the order of the appellate authority1 /

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Accordingly, the present writ petition is partly allowed and the order/communication dated 09.06.2023 is set aside and the respondent authorities are directed to reconsider the matter in light of the observations made in this order as expeditiously as possible preferably within a period of three weeks from the date of receipt of certified copy of the present order.

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