ORDER
1. The petitioners allegation in this case is that they passed Class 10+ 2 Senior School Certificate Examination through ‘Patrachar’ in the year 1994 under the Central Board of Secondary Education, and thereafter all of them got themselves admitted to the First Year B.Com. Course, Heramba Chandra College, 23; 49, Gariahat Road, Calcutta-29 sometime in September 1994. The petitioners were also sent up for the B.Com. Final Examination from the said college to the University of Calcutta. The examination will be held in March/April, 1996, but the University did not grant the petitioners registration certificates, and admit cards for sitting in that examination on the ground that ‘Patrachar’ is not recognised by the University of Calcutta as equivalent to Senior School Certificate Examination in view of the resolution of the Syndicate dated 30th November, 1993. There is no doubt that the question of equivalence is to be decided by the University at the first instance and the Court ordinarily will not enter into the question of equivalence which is primarily for the University to determine but the difficulty in a case like this is that the students had been admitted in the concerned college on the basis of their results in the Patrachar Examination, and they have already pursued the course for two years and if at this juncture they are not given the opportunity to appear in the B.Com. Final Examination under the Calcutta University, the whole future academic career of the petitioners may be ruined for no fault of their own.
2. 1 called a report from the Principal of the concerned college and the report has been submitted and placed before me in which the Principal of the said college has stated that the ‘ decision of the Syndicate of the University of Calcutta was never communicated to the Principal of the college.
3. It is also the case of the students that they were not aware of any decision which
might have been taken by the Syndicate of the University.
4. The learned Advocte appearing for the Principal of the college submits that he has informally collected a Circular dated 28th April, 1994 passed by the Calcutta University regarding the Universities which are describ-^ed as ‘Fake Universities’ wherein request was “made to the Principals/ Heads of the Colleges to be careful so that no student passing from any fake university may be admitted to any college. It has further submitted that even such Circular was also not communicated to the college and a copy of the same was very recently collected informally by the Principal. It is really very unfortunate that the decisions which the University may be taking in paper are not being communicated to the concerned quarters thereby causing a lot of inconvenience and harassment to different quarters including students.
5. It is needless to say that the University in such matters should act more carefully so that the decisions which it takes promptly brought to the notice of all concerned thereby avoiding the possibility of any undue inconvenience, harassment or embarrassment in future in respect of vital matters like education involving the career of the students. In the past also many students of ‘Patrachar’ Course have been allowed by this Court to appear in the University examination taking the view that since the decision of the Syndicate was taken on 30th November, 1993, those students who were admitted prior to that date should be allowed an opportunity to pursue their studies without any break, Now that it has come to the notice of this Court from the report submitted by the Principal as well as the submissions made on behalf of the students that even the decision of the Syndicate dated 30th November, 1993 relating to ‘Patrachar’ has not been communicated to the concerned colleges nor any publicity of the same has been given, it will be clearly unjust, improper and cruel at this stage to disown the students who have pursued their studies so long on being admitted by the College and to debar them from appearing in the examination.
6. In this connection, certain decisions of Supreme Court as well as this Court have been cited before me viz. Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh v. Sanjay Gulati, , Rajendra Prasad Mathur v. Karnataka University, and In re: Anindya Kumar, (1992) 1 Cal LJ 412.
7. Be that as it may, for reasons discussed above, I direct that the University will grant registration number and/or certificate to the writ petitioners and shall also issue Admit Cards in their favour within a period of a fortnight so that on the basis of the same the petitioners can sit in the ensuing B.Com. Final Examination of Calcutta University scheduled to be held sometime in March/ April, 1996.
8. The report submitted by the Principal of the College be kept with the records of this case with a direction that copy of the said report be made over to the learned Advocates appearing for the University as well as the writ petitioners.
9. The authorities of the University of Calcutta are directed to ensure the communication of the concerned resolution of the Syndicate dated 30th November, 1993 to all colleges and concerned Educational Institutions for enforcement in future and they are also directed to give adequate publicity of the said resolution by publishing the same prominently in at least four leading State-level newspapers of English, Bengali and-Hindi languages without further delay so that not only the concerned institutions but also the students at large may also know about the decision of the University regarding the position of Patrachar’ course and may avoid the cosequence of falling into the trap of wrong track for no fault of their own.
10. The steps taken by the University authorities in implementing this order may be reported by the University authorities to this Court within three weeks from date.
11. Returnable six weeks hence.
All parties are to act on a signed xerox copy of this dictated order on the usual undertaking.
12. Order accordingly.