The Allahabad High Court has directed the Babu Banarasi Das University in Lucknow to declare the results of LLM students and decide the representation of the petitioners, taking into account the guidelines issued by the UGC as well as the Bar Council of India.
A Single-Judge Bench of Justice Pankaj Bhatia passed this order, while hearing a petition filed by Ravi Sarthi and two others.
The plea said the petitioners were pursuing their Masters of Law Degree with specialisation in Criminal and Security Law offered by the respondent – college.
It is claimed that the fees structure for the said course was Rs 86,500/- out of which the petitioners have already paid Rs 46,500/-.
The claim of the petitioners is that UGC as well as Bar Council of India have issued guidelines giving directions for reconsideration of the issue pertaining to the payment of fees in respect of the students who were affected during the Covid-19 pandemic, however, no decision has been taken thereupon till date.
The second contention of the counsel for the petitioners is that their results are not being declared for the reasons best known to the university, probably because of non-payment of fees.
Akhilesh Kalra, counsel appearing for the university states that if the results are declared it may be difficult to recover the fees. He agrees that the university shall take a decision in respect of the representation made by the petitioners in the light of the directives given by the UGC as well as the Bar Council of India.
Considering the said submission made at the Bar, I do not see any reason for non-declaration of the results of the petitioners, the Court observed while disposing of the petition.
The Court directed the respondents – university to declare the results of the petitioners within one weeks and to decide the representation of the petitioners taking into account the guidelines issued by the UGC as well as the Bar Council of India within a period of three weeks.
“The respondents – university shall be entitled to retain the degree of the petitioners till the decision is taken and the consequent action follows”, the order reads.