Research › Search › Judgment

Orissa High Court · body

2003 DIGILAW 19 (ORI)

Suvendu Ku. Samanataray v. Utkal University

2003-01-09

P.K.MOHANTY

body2003
ORDER Heard counsel on all sides. 2. In its order dated 6.4.2000, this Court observed : “2. It has been stated in the petition that unfair means are employed in mass scale in LL.B. examination conducted by the said University inasmuch as in the examination halls the examinees are allowed to take Allahabad Law Book series, Central Law Book series and other law books besides answer chits etc. and they use the same in the examination hall in presence of the invigilators. It further appears from the petition that the students whose attendance is virtually nil, they are allowed to appear in the examination. Further the complaint discloses that because of this, the students are looked down upon in the society as general stigma is attached that they are obtaining the Law Degree by employing unfair means in Law examinations.” This Court further observed : “5. It appears that in the State of Orissa law teaching is imparted in the five Universities, namely, Utkal University, Sambalpur University, Berhampur University, North Orissa Univer¬sity, Baripada, and Fakir Mohan University, Balasore. It is not known in what manner teaching is imparted in law colleges and how examinations are conducted. We do not know in what manner the question papers are set and the evaluation work is done and whether by a local person or by outsider and whether there is any chance of bungling in evaluation of answer papers. Earlier, about 30 years back, law colleges used to be called as Evening Colleges in one of the neighbouring States. We do not know what is the position as present whether it is continuing as Evening College or has become worst. It appears that there is nothing like law college in the State of Orissa, and running of such colleges has become an industry either by the Unversity or by private entrepreneurs. If this state of affairs regarding law education will continue, we fail to understand how the judiciary would be able to main¬tain the standard. 6. The country at present requires strong judiciary and Indian Judiciary has proved itself to be one of the most strong judiciary in the world. Now the question arises how to maintain the standard. If the standard of law education is not improved, then we are afraid that the judiciary will continue to remain strong. 6. The country at present requires strong judiciary and Indian Judiciary has proved itself to be one of the most strong judiciary in the world. Now the question arises how to maintain the standard. If the standard of law education is not improved, then we are afraid that the judiciary will continue to remain strong. For a strong judiciary, there must be strong Bar and there can be strong Bar only if teaching in law is properly imparted in the law colleges by employing good teachers either whole-timers or part-timers and classes are taken regularly by the teachers, who are expected to deliver lectures after making full preparations. Apart from that, tutorial classes are also required to be taken effectively and regularly. It will be highly unjusti¬fied to throw blame upon the students alone for which also the teachers as well are responsible. If good teaching is imparted, then question of employing unfair means may not arise as the students will be regularly attending lectures and by burning mid-night lamps just like matriculation students in the olden days for equipping themselves to meet challenge to the judiciary. If a good student does not come out from the law college, then it is not expected that good lawyers would join the Bar. It is well known that quality of a judgment laying down law depends upon quality of argument. In view of these facts, we are of the view that it is a fit case in which notices should be issued to all the Universities of Orissa, Presidents of teachers’ and students’ Unions of the said Universities, Government of Orissa as well as Orissa State Bar Council.” Other than Sambalpur University, generally denying the malprac¬tices at examinations, the other Universities have not filed counter affidavits. 3. The examinations this year are approaching. From the arguments we find that the position has not improved much. In that situation, we think that an interim direction should be issued to the opposite parties to ensure that in all the ensuing Law Examinations conducted by the various Unversities, whether for the three-year course or for the five-year course, no copying is permitted. In other words, the opposite parties and the con¬cerned educational institutions and the Vice-Chancellors in particular, have to ensure that papers, books, guides or materi¬als, other than the hall-ticket and the identity card, are not taken into the Examination Halls by the examinees. In other words, the opposite parties and the con¬cerned educational institutions and the Vice-Chancellors in particular, have to ensure that papers, books, guides or materi¬als, other than the hall-ticket and the identity card, are not taken into the Examination Halls by the examinees. They have to ensure that malpractices are not indulged in and copying is prevented. To avert any law and order situation arising, it will be necessary to direct the Director General of Police and the Suprintendents of Police of all the Districts to provide adequate protection to the College Authorities and University Authorities to ensure that no copying is indulged in, during examinations to be conducted at the end of the present educational year, the coming final examinations for the various years to be conducted by the respective Universities and in the coming years. Any student found to be indulging in copying should be straight away ejected from the Examination Hall and any situation arising therefrom will be handled by the police authorities with a firm hand. It is not possible to continue to have a set of law gra¬dutes who have not attended classes, who have not seen the basic text books and who come out of a Law College merely by buying guides published by some agency, that too only a day previous to the examination or so and copying from it. Continuance of such a practice would deprive the State of a qualified Bar, increase the suffering of the litigants and is likely to earn for the State the qualification of being a perpetually backward State. Such a contingency should be averted. 4. The State and the Universities have also to ensure that colleges which do not have the requisite facilities including a good library and adequate teaching staff are not permitted to run law colleges. The colleges should also be prevented from permit¬ting mass copying at the examination. It is the duty of the Universities to disaffiliate or derecognise colleges which do not qualify. The Vice-Chancellors of the Universities owe it to the State and to themselves to ensure that quality law education is imparted in the State. 5. The colleges should also be prevented from permit¬ting mass copying at the examination. It is the duty of the Universities to disaffiliate or derecognise colleges which do not qualify. The Vice-Chancellors of the Universities owe it to the State and to themselves to ensure that quality law education is imparted in the State. 5. We, therefore direct the State, all the Universities and the other opposite parties to take urgent steps to ensure that the coming Law Examinations and the examinations to be held in future, are properly conducted, no copying is permitted, that proper secrecy is maintained in set¬ting the question papers, that the valuation of the papers is got done by qualified, honest and sincere examiners and that the results are published duly and in time. We also direct the Direc¬tor General of Police and all the Superintendents of Police to render the necessary protection to the College Authorities and the Universities to conduct the examinations properly and to eliminate malpractices including copying. We direct the Universi¬ties to ensure that only properly equipped institutions are permitted to conduct Law Courses and those institutions that do not maintain the requisite standards are disaffiliated or dereco¬gnised. Urgent steps will be taken in that regard and made effec¬tive from the Academic Year 2003-2004 onwards. Registry will communicate forthwith copies of this order to the State of Orissa represented through the Principal Secretary, Departmen of Higher Education, Orissa Secretariat, Bhubaneswar, Vice-Chancellors of Utkal University, Sambalpur University. Baripada and Fakir Mohan University, Balasore and the Director General of Police for immediate compliance. Post this matter for further orders after three months. Interim direction given.