The court dismissed a petition filed by another student who had challenged Juhi Bhandge's inclusion in the list of gold medallists on the ground that she had failed in the first semester of her LLM examination.
Bhange had clinched as many as 11 prizes including gold medals in the 2010 convocation.
During her viva-voce exam for LLM course, S B Narnaware, working with NU's Post Graduate Teaching Department (PGTD) of law, allegedly having some grudge against her, refused to allow her to appear in exam citing reason of poor attendance. She was subsequently declared failed in semester exam.
Bhange then approached the Board of Examinations (BoE) of the University which constituted a panel under Law Faculty Dean Ashok Pawde in its meeting of February 2, 2010. The panel found that she had indeed recorded more than 75 per cent attendance and severely reprimanded Narnaware.
Pawde panel in its report submitted on July 17, 2010, termed Narnaware's act as "most arbitrary exercise of power by a teacher while denying genuine opportunity to a student".
S L Deshpande, working in same department as Narnaware, then took her viva-voce exam and declared her passed.
NU declared revised results giving her 1,129 marks.
Meanwhile, the university had already declared the list of toppers and gold medal winners for 99th convocation which was held on October 1. (MORE)
