IPS officer insists on a first class degree; university says ‘no’

The petitioner had made a representation to the University to round off his marks since he had missed to secure first class because of a shortfall of just 0.09% of aggregate marks.
| Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO

The Madras High Court on Tuesday adjourned by a week a writ appeal filed by the University of Madras challenging a single judge’s order to round off 59.91% marks obtained by Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Pa Moorthy to 60% so that he could be considered to have passed his Masters in Law (M.L.) degree in first class and not second class.

First Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice D. Krishnakumar and Justice M. Jothiraman adjourned the hearing since the appeal could not be taken up on Tuesday due to paucity of time. Another Division Bench of Justices R. Mahadevan (now a Supreme Court judge) and Mohammed Shaffiq had already stayed the single judge’s order on February 8 this year.

In 2022 Pa Moorthy, now serving as Deputy Inspector General of Police (Tirunelveli Range), had filed a writ petition in the High Court stating to have pursued his M.L. (private study) course at the University of Madras in the academic year 2018-19. He told the court he had managed to complete the course despite very little personal time that he got to study.

Since he had missed to secure first class because of a shortfall of just 0.09% of aggregate marks, the petitioner had made a representation to the University to round off his marks. The plea was not considered and therefore, he had approached the court with a plea to quash the Controller of Examinations’ February 3, 2022 communication and consequently issue a direction to award 60% marks to him.

When the writ petition was listed before Justice Abdul Quddhose on July 8, 2022, the judge took note of a 2017 order passed by another single judge of the High Court in a case involving identical set of facts. In that case, the single judge had ordered for roudning off 59.96% of marks obtained by a law student to 60% so that the student concerned could be considered to have secured first class.

Concurring with the view taken by the single judge in that case, Justice Quddhose held that a similar benefit should be accorded to Mr. Moorthy too since he had pursued the law course despite his busy schedule as an IPS officer and had scored 59.91% marks with a shortfall of just 0.09% required for a first class degree.

“Accordingly, the petitioner’s aggregate marks in M.L. degree course (private study) at the Madras University is rounded off to 60% instead of 59.91% actually secured by him in the examinations and this writ petition is allowed,” Justice Quddhose had ordered.

Assailing the order by way of a writ appeal, the University as well as its Controller of Examinations contended that the varsity rules and regulations do not empower the university authorities to round off the marks secured by students and therefore, the single judge had erred in passing such an order.