In a big relief to nine students from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB), the High Court of Karnataka has upheld a single-bench order against their expulsion.
A division bench headed by Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi dismissed the premier institute’s appeal challenging the “lenient view” taken by the single bench on the students’ expulsion for cheating in mid-term exams held on August 5, 2021.
The students of the Post Graduate Programme in Business Analytics (PGP-BA) were allegedly involved in academic malpractice and cheating in the subjects of Marketing Management, Organisational Design and Managerial Communications-I.
The IIMB expelled them and withdrew them from the programme on August 25, 2021, and later rejected their appeal on September 24, 2021.
The students went to the high court, and a single-judge bench set aside their expulsion.
The bench had noted that the IIMB had shown discrimination in punishing the nine students.
Six other students who were also part of the same WhatsApp group were only given zero marks in the three subjects, instead of being expelled. (The WhatsApp group was allegedly created for the purpose of exam malpractice). The bench asked the institute to reconsider the quantum of punishment as per the Programme Manual.
The IIMB went in for an appeal. Its counsel argued in the court that of the nine students, some had confessed to cheating.
The counsel also contended that all the nine students were simultaneously part of the WhatsApp group and actively indulged in cheating.
'Need for lenient view'
Hearing the appeal, the division bench noted that though there is a provision for severely penalising the students, that does not mean the option of expulsion should be exercised every time and that a lenient view cannot be taken.
“However, we make it clear considering that the respondents/petitioners are the students studying in an apex management institute and their career is at stake, we feel it appropriate to observe that in case they involve themselves again in any such activities such as involving themselves in cheating in examination and adopting unfair means, then the appellant would be free to take appropriate action against them in accordance with the manual.
"The view taken by the writ court in the case of the respondent petitioners (students) shall not be treated to be a precedent in the future for the cases,” the division bench said.