-Request for postponement of the examination invalidated by court; Report called for by the committee
Aurangabad: The Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court has rejected a plea by six petitioning students to postpone the first semester examinations of the Bachelor and Postgraduate Department of Law, scheduled to begin on Thursday. The bench, consisting of Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Sanjay Deshmukh, denied the request and instead appointed a committee to determine how many law colleges fall under Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University and Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University.
The bench ordered the committee, comprising Senior lawyer Rajendra Deshmukh and Adv Srikant Advant, to submit information about the number of students enrolled in these colleges, whether they adhere to the rules of the All India Law Council regarding the education of the law branch, and whether the students have sufficient attendance, among other criteria, at the next hearing. The petition will be heard again in the second week of April.
The petitioners had requested the postponement citing a judgment of the Kerala High Court and the All India Law Council's regulations, which stipulate that the law course must be completed in at least 18 weeks. However, the petitioners did not complete their course, having been admitted to the law college in December. The plea was rejected after Dr Bamu University Adv Sambhaji Tope submitted a letter from the Principal of MP law college, stating that the course of law college had been completed.
The bench argued that holding the exam for 3000 students for the sake of six students was inappropriate, particularly since law courses do not involve experiments like science and students need to focus on self-study. The petitioners had presented their issues to the court on the day before the exam, prompting assistant public prosecutor Shirish Sangle to act on behalf of the government.