E-Paper
Panjab University to cough up ₹25,000 for failure to reply to a petition in HC
Court was hearing a petition seeking the quashing of a circular on scrapping the entrance examination for admission to LLM course on the ground of Covid-19 outbreak
The Punjab and Haryana high court has imposed a cost of ₹25,000 on Panjab University, Chandigarh, for its failure to file a reply to a petition.
The division bench of justices Jitendra Chauhan and Vivek Puri was hearing a petition seeking the quashing of a circular on scrapping the entrance examination for admission to the master of laws (LLM) course on the ground of Covid-19 outbreak. It was filed by one Uday Partap Singh, who contended that other universities and institutes had been conducting entrance examinations despite the pandemic.
While the university blamed the pandemic for the delay, stating that because of it the registrar was not available to file a reply, and sought a week’s time, the court took strict note of its inaction and imposed the cost during a hearing on Tuesday.
The bench already on November 18, 2020, had directed PU to “positively file reply within three weeks”, with a further direction that in case, it is not done within the stipulated period, it shall entail a cost of ₹25,000.
As per the directions of the division bench, PU will have to now first deposit the money with the high court registry and only then its reply will be accepted. The money will go to the Covid-19 relief fund of the high court bar association. The petition is to be taken up on February 4.
