High Court Asks Senior Advocate To Enquire Into Genuineness Of Exam Conducted By Madras University Upon Student's Plea

Justice N Mala asked the Senior Advocate to enquire into the veracity of the contention made by the Student regarding the conduct of the examination. The court also gave liberty to the Senior Advocate to call for WhatsApp messages and records of the University and asked the University to cooperate in the enquiry by submitting the materials as called for.

The court allowed the senior advocate to enquire the student, concerned staff, faculty and other students with whom the petitioner student claimed to write the exam. Further, the court permitted the senior advocate to summon any other witness appropriate for the enquiry. The court asked the senior advocate to conduct a detailed inquiry and submit a report by April 20, 2025.

The directions were given in a petition filed by a Student, Amanda Miriam Fernandez, to declare the results of an examination conducted by the Madras University on May 11, 2024 for History of Communication subject.

The student had initially filed a petition seeking directions to the University to conduct the examination. When the petition was taken up for hearing, the student's counsel informed the court that the University had conducted examination on Man 11, 2024 for seven students including herself. Recording this submission, the court had disposed the plea. Following this, the present petition was filed to declare the results.

When the matter was taken up, the Standing Counsel for the University submitted that the eaelier representation was false and that no exam had been conducted as claimed by the petitioner student. On the other hand, the student stood her ground and submitted that the exam was conducted on the particular day.

The student also produced a copy of the question paper for the examination conducted on may 11, 2024. To this, the standing counsel for the university submitted that the question paper was a fake one and argued that no exam was conducted on the particular date. The standing counsel also informed the court that while the other 6 students had attended the classes again and written exams in November, the petitioner neither attended the classes nor appeared in the exam.

Considering the seriousness of the case, the court directed the Senior Advocate to enquire into the issues and submit a report.

Counsel for Petitioner: Mr. V. Vasantha Kumar for Mr. R. Chandra Mohan

Counsel for Respondent: Mrs. V. Sudha, Standing Counsel

Case Title: Miss. Amanda Miriam Fernandez. R v. The Vice Chancellor, University Of Madras

Case No: W.P.No.36249 of 2024