The Delhi High Court has rejected the plea of an engineering student at Delhi Technological University (DTU) to revoke his punishment, after he was allegedly found using unfair means in the second semester examination in two subjects.
A Bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad observed that people using unfair means to steal a march over students who work hard to prove their worth have to be dealt with a heavy hand, adding that DTU has been “lenient” in imposing “Category IV” punishment to the student, rather than rusticating him.
‘Category IV’ punishment
“Category IV” punishment renders all examinations of the second semester taken by the student cancelled and make him ineligible for admission to the third semester. The student was directed to register for the second semester, alongside other B.Tech students admitted in 2022.
As per DTU records, on August 4, while the examination for “Programming Fundamental” was being conducted, an invigilator on duty caught one of the examinees with a mobile phone, used for the purpose of cheating.
On inspecting the phone, a WhatsApp group of 22 students named “Ans.” was found, which had shared images of some portions of a question paper of the “Basic Electrical Engineering” exam held on August 3 and some answers of “Programming Fundamentals” exam on August 4.
During inquiry, it was found that these pictures were shared from the mobile phone belonging to the student who has approached the High Court.
In his defence, the student said that he was a “bright student” who has won laurels at national levels and has been awarded scholarships in the National Talent Search Examination, 2019. He claimed that his mobile phone was taken by his roommate who misused it.
DTU had given him “Category IV” punishment as he had facilitated the act of sharing and using unfair means not only limited to him alone but to other students as well, which amounts to serious misconduct.
‘Cheating a pandemic’
The HC, however, noted that the decision taken by the university was based on facts and cogent reasoning.
“The said reasoning does not require any interference... Students, who resort to unfair means and get away with it, cannot build this nation. They cannot be dealt with leniently and they should be made to learn a lesson not to adopt unfair means in their life,” it said.
“It is a pandemic which can ruin society and the educational system of any country. If the same is left unchecked or if leniency is shown, the same can have a deleterious effect. For any country’s progress, the integrity of the educational system has to be infallible,” the court remarked.
