BENGALURU: While students have been protesting, demanding that the three-year and five-year LLB course under the Karnataka State Law University be completed as per the academic schedule without delay, the university may sacrifice holidays and Sundays to make up for the lost time.
Talking to The New Indian Express, Prof P Ishwara Bhat, Vice Chancellor of KSLU, said the delay in the academic calendar was due to COVID and the 'unnecessary' litigations by students that cost the university a month. "The even semester examination is due and odd semester is yet to start," he said, adding that the university however had started classes for first year LLB, honours course and LLM students.
While Bhat said the university was running on a three-month lag, he expressed confidence in making good the lost time to an extent. "In course of time, we will be able to cope by sacrifice of holidays or vacation, or even during Sundays we can work and make up the loss to an extent."
He added that other universities are lagging behind too and have not announced the final semester results but KSLU has done that -- the results were announced on October 10.
Why exams cannot be cancelled
Bhat clarified that students cannot be promoted to the next semester without end semester examinations as the Bar Council mandates exams at the end of each semester. "The 50 percent weightage to internal exams and 50 percent for the previous semester is an instruction of the higher education department which is not binding on us. We are under the law department, and the Bar Council is the regulatory authority and their norms prevail over UGC norms," he said.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum, on Wednesday, had passed an interim order allowing Karnataka State Law University (KSLU) to hold examinations for its undergraduate law courses. However it said that the results would be subject to the final order of the court. This order is for an appeal filed by the KSLU, where it challenged the interim order passed by a single judge bench in the High Court on November 12.
A similar case is pending with the Dharwad Bench of HC, Bhat said, adding that a decision is expected in three days after which the exam schedule can be announced.