Hruday P.B. vs The Vice Chancellor, The National Law School University of India and another. Writ Petition 9395/2020 decided on 18 November 2020.
Judgment Link: http://judgmenthck.kar.nic.in/judgmentsdsp/bitstream/123456789/348727/1/WP9395-20-18-11-2020.pdf
Relevant Paragraphs: 4 (a) The essential grievance of the petitioner emanates from the so called ‘admitted’ charge of plagiarism. Ramanatha Aiyar’s “Advanced Law Lexicon” 3rd Edn, Wadhwa Nagpur states: “Plagiarism: Publishing borrowed thoughts as original; stealing literary matter from the work of another author. The act or an instance of copying or stealing another’s words or ideas and attributing them as ones own”; the learned Lexicographer also mentions about Paul Goldstein’s ‘Copyright’s Highway 12 (1994) which lucidly explains the concept as under: “Plagiarism, which many people commonly think has to do with copyright, is not in fact a legal doctrine. True plagiarism is an ethical, not a legal, offense and is enforceable by academic authorities, not Courts. Plagiarism occurs when someone – a hurried student, a neglectful professor, an unscrupulous writer – falsely claims someone else’s words, whether copyrighted or not, as his own. Of course, if the plagiarized work is protected by copyright, the unauthorized reproduction is also a copyright infringement.”
4(c) Plagiarism is a very serious matter that involves ethics and reputation of the student/person concerned; proven plagiarism operates as a hazardous stigma at the campus and the person carrying the same is ordinarily shunned; it may affect his educational and employment opportunities as well; that is the reason, why the respondent-University has taken appreciable pains in meticulously structuring the provision in the extant Regulations so that the innocents are not victimized; however, it has not adhered to the minimum of the fairness standards enacted therein; ‘more is not necessary to specify and less is insufficient to leave it unsaid’.
4(d)The entire episode of so called ‘plagiarism’ is framed on the basis of a few notoriously cryptic mails exchanged between the Course Teacher and the Exam Department, detrimentally keeping the petitioner in darkness;
4(f) It has been a long settled position of law that a stray sentence giving the impression of admission of the guilt shall not be interpreted in isolation when the rest of the matter in the representations suggests the contra; one has to gather a holistic impression from reading the entire text and not a few sporadic sentences appearing here & there in a script, whilst considering if what is stated amounts to admission. An acclaimed jurist of yester decades Mr.Rupert Cross in his treatise ‘EVIDENCE’, (3rd Edn. London- Butterworks 1967) at page 433 states: “An admission being any statement … which is adverse to a party’s case, the only conditions of admissibility, when the statement emanates from the party himself concern the capacity in which he is acting and the reception of the entirety of the statement…”; it is more so when one is dealing with the educational career of young minds like the petitioner herein; loose & lavish wording of the representations, need to be given a due discount; the respondent –University is not justified in seeking shelter under a leaking umbrella of a poor student.
4(g) What intrigues this Court is about the enormity of unfair treatment which the petitioner was meted out at the hands of a Law University, in a serious matter like this; it is anguishing that the University did not afford an opportunity of personal hearing despite his written request in Biblical literature, even God is said to have given an opportunity of hearing to Adam & Eve before punishing them for consuming the proscribed fruit, in the Eden Garden; which heavens would have fallen down, had a reasonable opportunity of personal hearing been afforded, remains as a mystery rapped in enigma; after all, procedural fairness is a constitutional mandate when the answering respondent is an instrumentality of the “State” under Article 12 of the Constitution; it is high time that this University of national repute be reminded that it is dealing with our children and not others’ chattel.
ORDER. In the above circumstances, this writ petition succeeds; a Writ of Certiorari issues quashing the impugned orders at Annexures-H & L1; a Writ of Mandamus issues to the respondent-University to assess and award marks to the petitioner’s Project Work in question; petitioner shall be continued to keep the term by way of carry over/carry forward, disregarding the attendance shortage, if any.
Compiled by S.Basavaraj, Advocate, Daksha Legal.
Daksha Legal 