Two Law Students approached the High Court of Karnataka questioning the circular issued by the Karnataka State Law University in so far as it imposes an examination on KSLU intermediate semester law students for the semester from which they have already been promoted.
The petition is lodged by RithvikBalanagraj B. (3rd-year law student at St. Joseph Law College, Bangalore) and Arunkumara H.S. (2nd-year law student at S.B.R.R. Mahajana Law College, Mysore). The petitioners argued that the review would have a disproportionate and adverse effect on students who have not been able to attend classes online for a variety of reasons such as accessibility, remote location, and affordability. They will be essentially required to write tests on topics that have never been taught, which would have a differential impact on these students and would place an extra burden on those individuals that have already been disadvantaged, which would breach Article 14."
Furthermore, it is said that due to the abrupt closure of schools students have lost access to the library and have returned home without any study material in their possession. Students had a reasonable expectation from the university that they would be taught subjects, that they would have access to research materials, and that they would be tested. If a review is carried out bypassing this mechanism, this will be contradictory to this reasonable expectation.
The petition was filed by Arnav Bagalwadi, Shathabish Shivanna, Abhishek Janardhan and H.C. Prateek submit that the circular released by BCI and KSLU is inconsistent with the UGC Guideline of April 2019, the UGC Revised Guidelines of 6.07.2020 and the Karnataka Government Order of 10.07.2020 required all universities in the state of Karnataka to assess their intermediate semester students under the assessment formula; where 50% weightage would be in internal evaluation and 50 % weightage would be in marks scored in the previous semester. The law students of KSLU are equally affected by the pandemic and they are also similarly circumstanced.
The petition, which is likely to be referred for hearing in due course, asks the Karnataka State Law University to give effect to the Karnataka Government Order of 10.07.2020, which is in line with the UGC Guidelines on Exams. (Schedule 50-50).
