Karnataka High Court dismisses PIL filed by law students challenging decision of BCI, KSLU to hold intermediate semester exams this year

The Karnataka High Court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by two law students challenging the decision of the Bar Council of India (BCI) and the Karnataka State Law University (KSLU) to hold intermediate semester exams during the pandemic-hit year..While dismissing the petition, a Division Bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Sanjay Gowda granted liberty to the petitioners to approach a Single Judge Bench of the High Court.."The reliefs they are seeking in this writ petition are not in public interest, in as much as they are seeking relief in their personal interest or private interest. Therefore, writ petition cannot be styled as PIL. On this short ground, the petition is dismissed. Reserving liberty of petitioners to file writ petitions seeking reliefs in personal or private interest, if so advised."Karnataka High Court.During the hearing, the Bench had raised objection to the law students filing the plea. ."This is not a PIL, it is a private litigation styled as a PIL", remarked the Bench. .It also raised concern that the plea, if allowed, may be cited as a precedent where private interest was treated as a PIL..Senior Advocate AS Ponnanna had earlier urged the Court to take up the matter suo motu and to remove the petitioners' names. .However, the Court did not accede to this submission. .Ponnanna also requested the Court to transfer the matter directly to a Single Judge Bench. Opining that the same was not possible, the Division Bench granted liberty to the petitioners to approach a Single Judge Bench. .With this, the Court added, ."Just because they are law students from our fraternity, we cannot bypass the law.".Ponnanna submitted that the issue was not a matter of jurisdiction of the BCI or the state government in issuing the circular, but of conducting intermediate exams during the pandemic. It was his contention that conducting online exams would be counterproductive for the students, as no classes were held. .Two law students move Karnataka High Court challenging BCI, KSLU decision to hold intermediate semester exams.In their plea, the petitioners had submitted that the the KSLU circular dated November 9 and the BCI Press Release dated November 1 were in violation of the guidelines laid down by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the Karnataka government..Raising various concerns such as inaccessibility to online classes, it was submitted that only privileged students would be able to participate in online classes arranged by KSLU..Karnataka State Law University intermediate exams postponed, final year exams to be held online: Law Minister JC Madhuswamy.On these grounds, the plea had sought to quash the KSLU circular dated November 9 and BCI Press Release dated November 1.