In a recent ruling, the Punjab and Haryana High Court decreed that a final year LLM student facing murder charges should be allowed to take his second-semester exams, emphasizing that preventing him from doing so would cause irreparable damage to his future.
Justice Vikas Bahl underscored the potential harm to the student’s career if he were barred from completing his studies. “Denying the petitioner the opportunity to sit for his exams would result in significant, irreparable loss and jeopardize his future prospects,” the Court stated.
The student, a distinguished LLB graduate with a CGPA of 8.01 and a record of completing 25 online courses from various international universities, had previously been denied permission by a lower court. The lower court’s decision was based on the absence of an official admit card from the university, which the student needed to verify his eligibility to take the exams.
Challenging this decision, the petitioner approached the High Court, asserting his innocence in the murder case and arguing that his right to life encompassed his right to education. He highlighted that the university does not issue separate admit cards for exams; a student ID suffices for examination purposes, which he already possessed.
The petitioner’s counsel further explained that a request had been submitted to the jail authorities for permission to write the exams. However, the district jail superintendent declined, stating that the jail manual only allowed study facilities within the jail and that external examination arrangements required court orders.
The State suggested that if the petitioner’s request was approved, he could write the exams under police custody, with the expenses for the necessary arrangements falling on him. They contended that this would be the most secure way to proceed given the serious charges against him.
The High Court ruled in favor of the petitioner, allowing him to sit for his exams at the university. To facilitate this, the Court directed the State to provide adequate security to transport the petitioner to and from the examination center and issued specific instructions:
- The petitioner must deposit ₹75,000 as directed by the State.
- The State will assign sufficient police personnel to escort the petitioner from jail to the exam center on exam days.
- After each exam, the assigned police personnel will escort the petitioner back to jail.
- The university must allow the petitioner to take the exams upon presentation of his student ID.
- The university is also tasked with ensuring that the police personnel have a clear line of sight to the petitioner during the exams to prevent any escape attempts.
The legal representatives involved included Advocate Kanwalvir Singh Kang for the petitioner, Senior Deputy Attorney General of Punjab NS Diwana for the State, and Advocate Deepak Singh Saini for the university.
