HC upholds GNLU's detention policy

A division bench of Gujarat high court quashed a single-judge bench's order and upheld the detention system adopted by the Gujarat National Law University (GNLU), but the practice of awarding goodness marks will have to go.

GNLU director Bimal Patel had appealed against the single-bench order. His appeal has been allowed by the HC that their detention was proper. But on the evaluation of students on their performance throughout the year, the division bench has upheld the single judge's view. However, the bench has asked the GNLU to re-evaluate the process.

Last year, some GNLU students had filed a petition against certain examination rules of the university. Its continuous examination and end-semester examination rules provided that only those students that secure a minimum 40% marks in continuous evaluation and obtain two marks in goodness are eligible to appear in the end-semester exams.

The students questioned this detention policy and compulsion of gaining goodness marks. The single-judge bench had struck down these provisions with observation that such rules could be misused by faculty.

"Such discretionary power in the hands of the faculty members would make the atmosphere of the college like a circus, where everything would be under the command and control of the faculty members and the students would refrain from sharing their point of view in the classroom with the fear that if their viewpoint annoys the faculty member, it would come against them at the time of awarding the marks," the earlier court order read.