Gujarat High Court: In a civil application filed by a student (‘petitioner’) against the decision of the Veer Narmad South Gujarat University (‘Respondent’) (hereinafter ‘University’) for cancelling the entire result of LLB Examination for all semesters of the petitioner, the Single Judge Bench of Nikhil S. Kariel, J., dismissed the petition and upheld the decision of the University.
Factual Background
In the matter at hand, the present petitioner had taken admission into LLB Course at the University and submitted his statement of grades of Graduation from Shridhar University, Pilani, Rajasthan. On 11-06-2015, the University had given eligibility certificate to pursue the LLB Course at D.D. Law College, Navsari. Subsequently, the University found that the certificates of Shridhar University which the petitioner had submitted for getting admission in the LLB Course were fake, therefore the entire LLB Course result of the petitioner was set aside.
Court’s Decision
The Court was of the considered opinion that the petitioner was attempting to take advantage of his own wrong. The Court also said that the submission on behalf of the petitioner that since the University while giving admission could not detect the fraud perpetrated by the petitioner, therefore at a later stage, the University ought not to be permitted to rectify their mistake was absurd. The Court added that the petitioner himself was guilty of submitting fraudulent documents and whereas in case, the fraudulent documents were verified by the University at first and treated as genuine documents, the benefit was ultimately been taken by the petitioner himself. The Court also stated that the University would not in any manner be liable for not detecting the fraud perpetrated by the petitioner and on the other hand the petitioner could not be permitted to take advantage of fraud in the first place.
The Court also perused the Section 47 of the Veer Narmad South Gujarat University Act, and said that protection under the said Section was available only in case where the student concerned, was facing withdrawal of degree or diploma on the ground of being convicted by a Court of law of any offence which in the opinion of the Syndicate or the Senate, is a serious offence involving moral turpitude or if he has been guilty of scandalous conduct. It was the considered opinion of the Court that such protection is given in order to ensure that every conviction does not automatically result in a student having his degree or diploma being revoked by the University. Therefore, the Court said that such protection would not be applicable in the case of a student like the present petitioner, who had got admission in the LLB Course by perpetrating a fraud.
Further, the Court said that before any adverse action is taken against any person by the State, or its instrumentalities, it is envisaged that such organization would adhere to the principle of natural justice, but in the present case, more particularly where the petitioner had not submitted any document from the University in question i.e., Shridhar University certifying that the petitioner had studied with the University and the mark lists were in fact genuine, then the purpose of giving an opportunity of hearing would be nothing but an empty formality, more particularly when the Shridhar University had already informed the University about the fraudulent nature of the mark-sheets submitted by the petitioner.
Thus, the Court dismissed the petition for lack of merits.
[Mehul Sureshkumar Champaneria v. Veer Narmad South Gujarat University Through the Secretary, 2023 SCC OnLine Guj 2175, Decided on 03-07-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
For the petitioner: Advocate NK Majmudar;
For the Respondent: Advocate Bhagirath N Patel.
