New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has now junked the Delhi University's policy of not considering revaluated grades and marks for the awarding of gold medals and other academic honours, noting that this was clearly an arbitrary one.
Justice Rekha Palli of the Delhi High Court was hearing a plea by a student, Annie Gurmehar Kaur, who had graduated with Economics (Honours) in 2021 but had not been considered for a medal at the convocation by DU.
The student had said that one of her papers, 'Indian Economy 2', had been sent for revaluation and her marks in that paper had increased subsequently. But before this, the varsity had already put a list of students to be honoured at the convocation.
She said that when she approached the Dean of Students, the varsity had communicated to her that only original marks of students are considered for deciding the list of awardees. This prompted the student to challenge the policy in the high court.
DU's counsel defended the policy in court by arguing that since most awardees wish to apply for further studies or jobs, it was choosing a policy decision to make sure they do not have to wait for their medals/prizes till the entire process of other students applying for revaluation/improvement is completed.
However, Justice Palli ruled that the varsity cannot act in a manner that causes injustice to students who deserve to get the award, reported legal news website Bar & Bench.
The court ruled that if students like the petitioner, have their marks revised in the revaluation process and are still deprived of awards and medals to which they are entitled to, then the entire process will virtually amount to depriving her of the benefit of the increase in marks from the revaluation process for no fault of theirs.