JUDGMENT

Vikas Mahajan, J.

1. The petitioner, who is a third-year student pursuing LL.B. from Law Centre-1, Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, has filed the present petition seeking a direction to the respondent-University to allow him to take his IV semester supplementary exam in the subject of 'Competition Law' along with supplementary exam of VI semester.

2. The contention of the petitioner is that he had a backlog examination of 'Competition Law' from the IV semester of LL.B. and the said backlog examination was scheduled to be conducted on 25.08.2022 as part of regular examination for the said semester. At the same time, the VI semester regular examinations were scheduled to be conducted from 10.08.2022 to 29.08.2022. However, a day prior to the backlog examination i.e. on 24.08.2022, the VI semester exam in the subject of 'Principles of Taxation' was scheduled to be held.

3. It is the case of the petitioner that he came across notice/information titled as "Important Rules" displayed on the official website of the Faculty of Law (lawfaculty.du.ac.in) under the tab name 'Students', which reads as under:

"Supplementary Examination

After the completion of six Terms, a student of LLB may take supplementary examination in any paper of I or III Term along with the V Term supplementary examination and in any paper of II or IV Term along with the VI Term supplementary examination held for the purpose: Provided that all the thirty papers required for getting the LL.B. Degree have to be cleared within the span period of six years."

(emphasis supplied)

4. It is further case of the petitioner that in view of the above information available on the website, the petitioner was misled to believe that the IV semester supplementary examination will be conducted along with the VI semester supplementary examination. Since there was no time gap between the IV semester backlog examination and VI semester examination in the subject of 'Principles of Taxation', the petitioner was not in a position to thoroughly prepare and clear both examination, therefore, the petitioner prepared extensively for the VI semester examination in the subject of 'Principles of Taxation' instead of IV semester backlog examination in the subject of 'Competition Law' under the belief that in case he failed in IV semester backlog examination, he could again appear in the same along with the VI Term supplementary examination. Accordingly, the petitioner appeared for both the examinations, i.e., in the VI semester exam 'Principles of Taxation' held on 24.08.2022 and the IV semester backlog examination of 'Competition Law' held on the very next day i.e. on 25.08.2022.

5. The results of the VI semester examination along with backlog exam of IV semester taken by the petitioner was declared on 18.10.2022. The petitioner secured 62 marks out of 100 marks in the 'Principles of Taxation' whereas in the backlog exam of 'Competition Law' pertaining to the IV semester the petitioner could score only 24 marks out of 100 marks.

6. It has further been asserted in the writ petition that on an subsequent enquiry the petitioner learnt that the supplementary examination of IV semester will not be conducted along with the VI semester supplementary examination and such practice has been discontinued by the University by way of a notification in the year 2017. The petitioner claims that in view of the notice/information displayed on the website of the Faculty of Law he is entitled to take supplementary examination of IV Semester with specially conducted VI Semester Supplementary examination.

7. The case of the University of Delhi (respondent no.1), as borne out from a short counter affidavit is that the petitioner, who admittedly took admission in the LL.B course in the Faculty of Law, University of Delhi in the academic year 2019-20, will be governed by the terms and conditions stipulated in the prospectus of the Faculty of Law for the same academic year 2019-20.

8. According to the U