'Effective Education Not Imparted Amid Covid': Karnataka HC Quashes KSLU Notif For Conducting Intermediate Sem Exams For 3-Yr LLB Course

The Karnataka High Court on December 14, quashed the notification issued by Karnataka State Law University, by which it was to conduct offline examinations for the students of 2nd and 4th semester of three year LLB course. oing by data collected by the University which indicate the majority of the students did not possess the laptop/desktop and also do not have access to internet facilities, it is implied that effective education was not imparted to the petitioners as well as majority of the students, " the Bench observed adding that The court gave the directions while disposing of a petition filed by Mahanatesh and others, students pursuing 2nd and 4th semesters in three years LL.B course in colleges affiliated to KSLU. The Court said, The court took into consideration that UGC issued guidelines on the examinations in view of the COVID-19 pandemic in July, 2021 wherein the examinations for intermediate semester/year students was dispensed with and students were promoted to the next semester based on the internal evaluation and previous semesters as suggested in 2020 guidelines. On going through the expert committee report proceedings of the University, the Court said, "An analysis of the proceedings indicates that the Expert Committee resolved to conduct examinations through offline mode only, by collecting data from the respective Law Colleges.The Committee was required to consider not only the feasibility to conduct examinations, but also was required to determine the other mode of examinations, that is, open book exam and assignment based evaluation/research paper. Accordingly, it held, "The decision taken by the University without taking into account the relevant factors for conducting examinations through offline mode is arbitrary having regard to the fact that effective education was not imparted to the petitioners which is the basic requirement for petitioners to write the examination."