The Hon’ble Himachal Pradesh High Court on 9th January, 2024 directed for registration of contempt of court case against the Vice-Chancellor of Himachal Pradesh National Law University (HPNLU), Shimla.
This case arose from the plea of implementation of an order passed on November of 2023 which had directed the Vice-Chancellor of HPNLU to decide a student’s request to reappear and retake a supplementary semester examination at the time when regular exams for the third year were held. The Court disposed of the petition whereby it directed VC Nistha Jaiswal to reply to the student’s representation within two days of receiving it.
The VC strangely put forth that she was not available for the said reply and delegated the power to the Registrar of the University to decide on the representation for the exam as made by the student.
The student, being aggrieved by the said representation of the VC, laid an execution petition before the Hon’ble Himachal Pradesh High Court.
The Hon’ble Court was misrepresented that the student’s representation was heard by the VC, although the same was afterwards heard and sought to be decided by the Registrar.
The Hon’ble Court took cautious note of the issue and remarked the issue to be serious. It observed that it could not understand that when a direction was issued by the Court to the effect that the representation is to be decided by the VC, the VC despite giving a due hearing to the petitioner, delegated her power to pass on the direction to the Registrar. This was noted to be a clear-cut instance of overreaching the Court’s directions, as well as deliberate disobedience of the Court’s directions.
The Hon’ble Court also observed and noted that the VC could not have delegated her powers in such a manner, and if the same was necessary, she could have sought the modification of the order passed by the Court by moving an appropriate application before this Court, or some more time to comply with the same. The Hon’ble Court summarized that the VC wilfully disobeyed the order passed by it in November, 2023.
This matter is again scheduled to be heard on 11th March, 2024. The VC, as has been mentioned in the order, is not required to appear in person.
This order is given by Justice Ajay Mohan Goel of the Hon’ble Himachal Pradesh High Court.
CASE NAME: Mitesh Jaiswal vs. HP National Law University (Given on 9.1.24).
Aditya Paul, 5th Year Student, Adamas University, Intern Under Legal Vidhiya.
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