The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh has directed Kashmir University to compensate a student with Rs 1 lakh for improper and arbitrary evaluation of his English paper during the B.A. 5th Semester Examination for the 2017-18 session.

The student’s complaint revealed that he initially received 27 marks in his General English Paper, falling short of the 38 required to pass. Upon reviewing a copy of his answer sheet, he discovered that one question had not been evaluated. Following a re-evaluation request, he was awarded 40 marks, but the University later reduced these to 34, causing him to fail again. The reduction was claimed to be in accordance with “Statute 10 of the University pertaining to the re-evaluation of answer scripts.”

Justice Javed Iqbal Wani noted that the Statute did not apply to the student’s situation and criticized the University for its arbitrary and illegal application of the rule. The court ruled that this unfair treatment caused significant prejudice to the student, who had to retake the examination, and ordered the University to pay damages.