The Battle for Gold: Delhi HC directs Amity Law School to award Gold Medal to Law graduate

The Delhi High Court has allowed the petition of law student Abhinav Pandey and has directed Amity Law School to confer a Gold Medal on him for graduating from the university with the highest score..Pandey, during his 6th semester in 2013, was unable to appear for two papers as he was suffering from chicken pox. He wrote the said two papers in 2014 and graduated with the highest cumulative performance index (cpi)..However, the university rejected his claim for the Gold Medal on the ground that he did not attempt his two examinations in the year 2013. Thereafter, Pandey filed the writ petition in the High Court praying that the Gold Medal be awarded to him for the B.A. LL.B. course..Appearing for the University, Advocate Ekta Sikri submitted that the governing ordinance of the University states that any student who fails to appear in examinations at the first time, and thereafter, appears in the said examinations on a subsequent date would qualify as a ‘second attempt’ on his part..It was further submitted that since the petitioner could not appear for two examinations in the year 2013, he had qualified these two papers only in the year 2014 and this not being his ‘first attempt’ and the University being governed by its ordinance, the petitioner makes out no case..The Single Judge Bench of Justice Indermeet Kaur while relying on 1987 SC 1362 Abhijit Vs. Dean, Government Medical College, Aurangabad and Another observed that,.“Although the Apex Court had made this observation not in the context of a ‘first attempt’ but the line of thinking was obviously to the effect that where a candidate fails to appear in an examination because of an illness and because of no fault of the said candidate, his non-appearance at the examination would not be a ground to impose a penalty upon him.” .The Bench stated that the present case is clearly a case where the petitioner could not appear for his papers in the year 2013 on account of circumstances, which were beyond his control i.e. the circumstance of him having developed an infectious illness i.e. chickenpox..It was further noted that as per the rules of the University the next scheduled date was in the year 2014 when after clearing his 5 papers of the 8th Semester he obtained the highest score i.e. CPI of 80.56..The Bench concluded that the petitioner having qualified his papers in the ‘first attempt’ with the highest CPI was entitled to the award of the Gold Medal and observed that,.“…..such an achievement must be recognized and if the institution fails to give a recognition to a candidate who deserves it he has no other option but to approach this Court, which the candidate has done so in the instant case.”.The petitioner, Abhinav Pandey, was represented by Advocate Amit George..Image taken from here. .Read the Judgment below.