New Delhi, Jan 22 : The past two years have been tumultuous for law student Ankita Meena.Amid several legal adversities, she continued to put a brave face and cleared all the hurdles in finishing her law studies at Delhi University.
In second year, she was not allowed to write her exams, as she missed classes due to the advanced stage of her pregnancy.Her miseries were quadrupled after her results for fourth, fifth and sixth semesters were also withheld.
Yet she did not give up and continued the battle in the top court, which reached its finality on Friday.The Supreme Court has now directed the Delhi University to declare the fifth semester results, which would allow her to have a shot at a career in law.
On Friday, a bench headed by Chief Justice S.A.Bobde and comprising Justices A.S.Bopanna and V.Ramasubramanian said: “The IA (intervention application) and the SLP (special leave petition) are disposed of, directing the university to declare the fifth semester supplementary examination results of the petitioner and issue the provisional degree along with necessary certificates, provided she had passed the examinations, subject to the petitioner clearing the other formalities.”
Meena joined the three-year LLB course at Law Centre II, Faculty of Law, Delhi University, in August 2016.By the time she joined the course, she was already married for about five months.
She completed the first three semesters without any hindrance.However, she fell short of the required attendance mark during the fourth semester, due to two difficulties: One, she gave birth to a baby in February 2018; and second, the teachers’ association went on strike in middle of March, hence classes were impacted.
In May 2018, when she was in second year, the top court declined to give her permission to write her exams as she had missed her classes due to her pregnancy.The court noted that it was “very uncomfortable” to pass an order at 1 pm on her plea to sit in the exam scheduled an hour later.
In October 2018, the top court permitted her to attend classes at her own risk on completion of the required formalities.
In February 2019, the court directed the university to permit her to attend the classes for sixth semester as per its October 2018 order.
On July 5, 2019, the Supreme Court directed the university to permit her to appear in the fifth semester supplementary examination scheduled the next day.
In July 2020, the apex court directed that her results for fourth and sixth semesters be declared.Following these orders, Meena appeared for fourth, fifth and sixth semester exams.
The university had declared the results of the fourth and fifth semester examinations, but did not declare the results for the fifth semester supplementary examination.
The top court noted that Meena has completed the course in entirety and the results of all the semester examinations except the fifth semester supplementary examination have already been declared.
Directing the university to declare the fifth semester results, the top court said: “This order is passed under the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case
.
