Kerala High Court: While deciding the case where a law student filed a petition for obtaining passing marks in one subject by entitling himself to a remedial provision of benefit of moderation, which covered students who have attained 30% marks in relevant paper for the finalisation of the result, the Division Bench of Mohan M. Shantanagoudar, CJ. and Sathish Ninan, J. held that the students who have repeatedly failed are not entitled to get the benefit of this provision and and this provision will only be applicable in case of external examinations.
The appellant is a student of five year LLB course. Having failed in several subjects, he passed the same in subsequent supplementary examinations. The appellant has completed the course except for one subject. The Board of Studies in Law had unanimously decided to recommend granting of special moderation to candidates who have completed the LL.B course (old Scheme without internal assessment), but stands failed only in a single paper in all the semesters and only for the finalization of the result. The Board suggested that moderation may be awarded to candidates who have secured 30% marks in the relevant paper subject to a maximum of 20 marks and moderation may be made applicable only in the case of external examinations. Thereafter the appellant approached the court to seek remedy under the said provision .
The Court observed that the intention of the University was to help the students who have passed all the papers in an attempt, but had failed only in one subject by getting 30% marks. Such students alone should be given the benefit of Ext. P2 order. Dismissing the plea under the facts and circumstances of the case, the Court held that the appellant was not entitled to the said benefit because the appellant had failed previously in many subjects. [Vishnu Prakash. A v. University of Calicut, 2016 SCC OnLine Ker 27793, decided on. 14.12.2016]
