Nagpur university lecturer deliberately failed LLM student

 In a major relief to a meritorious student "deliberately" failed by a faculty member, the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court has held that she was fit and received the gold medal after scoring high marks in a retest conducted by Nagpur University.

The court dismissed a petition filed by another student who had challenged Juhi Bhandge's inclusion in the list of gold medallists on the ground that she was failed in the first semester of her LLM examination.

Juhi had clinched as many as 11 prizes including gold medals in the 2010 convocation.

During her viva-voce exam for LLM course, S B Narnaware, working with NU's Post Graduate Teaching Department (PGTD) of law, allegedly having some grudge against her, refused to allow her to appear in exam citing reason of poor attendance. She was subsequently declared failed in semester exam.

Juhi then approached the Board of Examinations (BoE) of the University which constituted a panel under Law Faculty Dean Ashok Pawde in its meeting of February 2, 2010. The panel found that she had indeed recorded more than 75% attendance and severely reprimanded Narnaware.

Pawde panel in its report submitted on July 17, 2010, termed Narnaware's act as "most arbitrary exercise of power by a teacher while denying genuine opportunity to a student".

S L Deshpande, working in same department as Narnaware, then took Juhi's viva-voce exam and declared her passed.

NU then declared revised results giving her 1129 marks.

Meanwhile, the university had already declared the list of toppers and gold medal winners for 99th convocation which was held on October 1.

Mushahid Ali, who had scored highest marks in LLM (1027) by then, was also included in the list of gold medallists. After NU revised Juhi's marks to 1129, she replaced him.

Ali then moved the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court contending that Juhi had failed in her semester exam and could not claim the medal.

A bench of justices Bhushan Gavai and Sunil Deshmukh though dismissed his plea, it stated that NU inquiry report had clearly mentioned that Juhi was deliberately failed.

Nagpur university was named as respondent in the case.

Ironically, no action was taken against the lecturer despite having concrete proof though Vice Chancellor Vilas Sapkal has assured of strict action.

Narnaware could not be contacted for comments.