BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court while directing RGUHS to issue a provisional degree certificate to a student, said it hoped that the authorities will communicate to other universities to follow suit.
The court’s direction to Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) comes in the wake of inconvenience being caused to students in getting admission to higher studies and applying for jobs on account of the delay in holding the convocation ceremony owing to Covid-19.
The court passed the order while allowing partly the petition filed by Lanson Brijesh Colaco, a student from Mangaluru, seeking directions to the university to issue a final MBBS degree certificate. "If the university fails to issue a certificate within two weeks, it has to pay Rs 5,000 per week to the petitioner, and the same should be recovered from officials responsible for delay," the judge added.
Justice Krishna S Dixit said, "This court hopes that the authorities will issue appropriate communication to other universities or colleges to avoid inconvenience to students in such circumstances by issuing PDC and treat it on par with the award of degree for all practical purposes."
"It is a matter of common knowledge that a degree certificate in hand is worth ten in the cupboard of the campus, since gaining entry to the portals of higher education and for securing employment within the country or abroad, normally depends upon the award of degrees by the universities. The non-production of certificates is possibly resulting in the loss of a valuable seat; the same is true of employment," the judge said.