HIGH COURT OF CALCUTTA
CHAKRABARTI, SARMA SARKAR
KAMALA BANERJEE - Appellant
Versus
UNIVERSITY OF CALCUTTA - Respondent
A. F. O. O. 131 Of 1955
Decided On : FEBRUARY 14, 1956
CALCUTTA UNIVERSITY ACT - SECTIONS 11, 4(6) - REGULATIONS, CHAPTER XXV, RULES 7, 8, 9, 10, CHAPTER XL, RULES 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 17 - CONSTITUTION OF INDIA, ARTICLE 226 - BACHELOR OF TEACHING EXAMINATION - QUESTION PAPER SET WAS STIFF AND OUTSIDE THE SYLLABUS - CANDIDATES PROTESTED AND LEFT THE EXAMINATION HALL - UNIVERSITY AWARDED PROPORTIONATE MARKS TO SOME CANDIDATES AND DEBARRED OTHERS FROM APPEARING IN THE NEXT YEAR'S EXAMINATION - HELD, UNIVERSITY HAD NO POWER TO AWARD PROPORTIONATE MARKS - COURT CANNOT DIRECT UNIVERSITY TO HOLD A FRESH EXAMINATION IN ONE PAPER ALONE - APPEAL DISMISSED.
Fact of the Case:
In the Bachelor of Teaching Examination of the University of Calcutta for 1954, the question paper on History of Education was stiff and outside the syllabus. Candidates protested and left the examination hall. The University awarded proportionate marks to some candidates and debarred others from appearing in the next year's examination.
Finding of the Court:
1. The University had no power to award proportionate marks to candidates who had not taken the examination. 2. The Court cannot direct the University to hold a fresh examination in one paper alone.
Issues: 1. Whether the University had the power to award proportionate marks to candidates who had not taken the examination? 2. Whether the Court could direct the University to hold a fresh examination in one paper alone?
Ratio Decidendi: 1. The University is not a sovereign body that can bestow the favour of ordinary academic degrees in any way it pleases on anyone whom it may consider deserving of the favour. It is a body created by statute and, like all such bodies, it has only such powers and functions as the statute creating it has conferred on it and as the Regulations framed under the statute provide for. 2. The Regulations clearly provide that marks can be awarded only on answers submitted by the candidates and in accordance with the quality of those answers. Rule 14, when it states that in order to pass, a candidate must 'obtain' 40 per cent, of the marks, does not mean or imply that marks can be obtained by a gift from the University. 3. The residuary provisions in the Act and Regulations cannot be construed so as to read in them a power to award proportionate marks by the introduction of two fictions, first, the fiction of the existence of answer papers which do not exist and secondly, the fiction of there being answers on those non-existent papers of a quality, equivalent to the average qualify of the answers in the other papers, actually answered.
Final Decision: The appeal was dismissed, but there was no order as to costs.
( 1 ) WE have felt some embarrassment in dealing with this appeal, because while it is clear that the appellant has a just grievance, it is equally clear that no relief can be given to her in the form prayed for, nor indeed any relief in the present proceedings.
( 2 ) THE facts are as follows. The appellant was a candidate at the Bachelor of Teaching Examination of the University of Calcutta for 1954. She was appearing from the David Hare Training College, for the candidates who were taking their examination in Calcutta, the place of the examination was the Ashutosh Building. The candidates were accommodated in various rooms in the first floor and the second floor, a large number being given seats in a room called the Ashutosh Hall. The appellant had her seat in Boom No. 11 which is on the second floor and in the southern flank of the building and it is contiguous to the Ashutosh Hall.
( 3 ) THE examination in the first two papers went off smoothly. But on 14-5-1954, when the examination in the third paper, History of Education, was scheduled to take place, an ugly and discreditable incident occurred. As soon as the question papers were handed out, there were angry protests from a large section of the candidates who began to shout that the questions were too stiff, that they were of such a nature as could not be answered within the time limited and that they included questions on subjects outside the syllabus. The malcontents did not rest satisfied with merely voicing their protests, but resorted to methods which have nowadays come to be known as direct action. They left their seats, apparently bent on wrecking the examination and while shouting slogans of various kinds, began to pull off those of the candidates who were still sticking to their seats by physical force. The scene lias been described by the Controller of Examinations as an absolute pandemonium'. After some time, however, the tumult and shouting seem to have subsided a little, when some of the men candidates began to return singly or in groups and they sought permission to continue sitting for the examination. Their request was acceded to and they were put inside the Ashutosh Hall and an adjoining room on the same floor where they could sit for the examination. What happened next can be best described in the language of the Controller of Examinations who made a report to the Syndicate on 20-5-1954: "at about 11. 5 a. m. , however, a large crowd, about 100 strong, assembled at the entrance of the hall, banged the wooden door violently and was about to break it open. The Assistant-in-Charge of the centre, the invigilators and the peons of the post Graduate Office altogether about 12 in number who were guarding the Hall from outside, were trying to resist the mob, but were soon over powered, and the said Assistant was caught hold of by his neck and was so violently shaken that he was about to fall down unconscious when some other persons rescued him away from the crowd. "the banging at the door and the commotion was so great that the candidates many of. them were girls were visibly shaken. Some surrendered their scripts to the invigilators on duty. In no time the disturbers jumped into the hall through the ventilators at the top of the door, and overpowering the three invigilators on duty inside the hall, opened the door and allowed the mob to sweep into the hall. The mob snatched away the scripts from the candidates and the invigilators, and tore them to pieces and scattered them all over the floor. They threw the wooden desks and chairs hither and thither, shouted in abusive language and then left the hall. The Assistant Controller who was inside the hall is an eye witness of this mob violence. It is painful to have to record that one of these invaders went so far as to catch hold of the crucifix round the neck of a nun be longing to Loretto House to make her leave her seat. "
( 4 ) IN view of the conditions so graphicallydes cribed by the C
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