The court determined that the university's denial of examination permission based on attendance was arbitrary, emphasizing the need for adherence to judicial directives and consideration of individual circumstances in educational regulation.

JUDGMENT :

A.K. Mohapatra, J.

Being aggrieved by the decision of the Opposite Party No.1-University in denying permission to the Petitioner to appear in the 4th Semester of LL.M Examination conducted by Opposite Party No.1-University, while allowing him to appear in the 3rd Semester Examination on the ground that the Petitioner does not have adequate attendance to appear in such examination, the Petitioner has approached this Court by filing the present writ petition. Further, the Petitioner has prayed for quashing the order vide Memo dated 13.07.2023 under Annexure-4 with a further direction to the University to permit him to appear in the 4th and final Semester of LLM Examination to be conducted by P.G. Department of Law, Utkal University, Vani Vihar, Bhubaneswar.

2. The factual matrix as culled out from the writ petition, on a narrow compass, is that the Petitioner got himself enrolled as a student of P.G. Department of Law, Utkal University and he was assigned University Registration No.14015V103004 in the academic session 2010-12. Further, it appears that although the academic session should have commenced from the month of June, 2010, however, the same started from December, 2010 thereby the academic session was delayed by a period of six months. Pursuant to such enrolment, the Petitioner was allowed to appear in the 1st and 2nd Semester Examination conducted by the University without any hindrances as a regular student. He also secured the highest mark in respect of 1st and 2nd Semester Examination of LLM and was accordingly felicitated with the prestigious Justice Bira Kishroe Ray Memorial Award.

3. While prosecuting his LL.M Degree course, the Petitioner got selected for Odisha Judicial Service Examination-2011. Accordingly, the Petitioner joined in Judicial Service on 9th January, 2012. While joining in Judicial Service, the 3rd Semester was round the corner and was scheduled to be held in the 4th week of January, 2012. Accordingly, the Petitioner applied for permission from the Hon’ble High Court of Orissa to appear in the said examination. Since there was a delay in communicating such approval from this Court, the Petitioner could not appear in the 3rd Semester Examination awaiting grant of such permission by this Court. Finally, this Court granted permission to the Petitioner to appear in the 3rd and 4th Semester Examination to be conducted by the Opposite Party No.1-University.

4. While this was the position, the Petitioner pursuant to the permission granted by this Court appeared in the 3rd Semester (back paper examination) without any hassle. The real problem arose when the Petitioner approached the P.G. Department of Law of Utkal University, Vani Vihar, Bhubaneswar to fill up the form for 4th and final Semester Examination in the year 2013. He was debarred by the P.G. Department of Law of Opposite Party No.1 to fill up the form and to appear in the final 4th Semester Examination of P.G. Law Course. On enquiry, the Petitioner came to learn that he has been debarred due to shortage of attendance and such a conclusion was arrived at on the basis of the fact that since the Petitioner had joined in Judicial Service w.e.f. 09.01.2012, it was not possible on his part to regularly attend the classes thereafter. Being aggrieved by such decision, the Petitioner approached the University by filing a representation dated 17.07.2013 before Opposite Party No.1, however, the same was not considered by the Opposite Party No.1, as a res