‘Topper’ on 2nd attempt seeks Gujarat University’s gold medal

The Gujarat University (GU) has been asked to decide whether a postgraduate medical student is eligible for a gold medal if he passes the examination with the highest marks on the second attempt.

A division bench of the Gujarat high court has directed GU authorities to take a fresh decision in the case of Dr Manoj Bansal who passed the postgraduate course in Cardiology on the second attempt.

The bench also set aside the GU decision that awarded the gold medal to a student who had scored less marks than Bansal in 2009 in the same course.

According to the case details, Bansal got admission in the Cardiology course in July 2005 after clearing the All India Entrance Examination. 

Bansal could clear the theory papers but he was declared "failed" in the practical examination. However, he appeared in the next examination that was held in January 2009 and passed after scoring 601 out of 1000 marks. 

The GU authorities, however, decided to award the 'Dr. Nathubhai Harjivan Patel, DM Cardiology Gold Medal' to a student, Mitend Kharche, who had scored 589 out of 1,000 marks at the very first attempt in January 2009.

Challenging GU decision, Bansal's lawyers, RR Marshal and Tulsi Savani, argued before the court that the person who had instituted the award had not included number of attempts made by a student as a criterion for awarding the gold medal.