- (1.) The petitioner stake a claim to a gold medal as a person who has secured an overall a tally of 8.077 on 10 point scale. The aggregate marks for all the five years was 6987. The rules for securing the gold medal are set down in the University Calendar and to the extent they are relevant, they are re-produced hereunder:- "Gold Medals/Awards Gold Medals and other Awards will be awarded annually at the time of convocation of the University to the students. (a) Securing highest overall grade point average/marks and fulfilling the general rules for the award of gold medals/awards in all the undergraduate programmes. (b) Basis of awards for other gold medal has been indicated below each gold medal (c) Awardees shall also have to fulfill the condition laid down in general rules for the award of gold medals/awards." In the above provision, the requirement to fulfill the condign is brought about in clause (2), which reads as under:- "2. In order to be eligible, the students must have completed the entire programme at the University and should be on continuous residence for the specified period of residential requirements." The petitioner had done her 1st year of Bachelor's course in a college in Palampur in Himachal Pradesh and obtained a migration to the college which was originally under the Haryana Agricultural University. The denial of the gold medal was done on a consideration of application of Rule (2), referred to above, that the entire programme of the degree course must have been completed at the same university and since the petitioner has come from migration from yet another university, she will not be considered as eligible.
(2.) The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner submits that the marks, which the petitioner has secured from the Himachal Pradesh University was only for one year and the rest of the four years course has been completed only from the very same university to which she was transferred and, therefore, if the idea was to promote the most meritorious students who has secured the highest tally, the petitioner must be awarded the gold medal. The further argument is that if the strict understanding of this clause must be made, no student could have been awarded the gold medal because the college which was affiliated to Haryana Agricultural University was itself upgraded as university and was called as Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animals Sciences, Hisar and hence every candidate had undergone a change of university in the process.
(3.) I reject both the arguments for requirement that the entire programme must be at the same university is to ensure that she had the highest tally amongst the students who shared the same competition and faced the same examinations for all the years. Each university has its own gradations and levels of competition and a person who has studied even for one year in some other university and undertaken examination cannot be said to have competed on equal terms with another candidate from another university. If the level of competition has been different for any one year, then the comparative merit for a person to deserve a gold medal gets diluted and, therefore, I hold that the requirement that a person must have done entire programme in the same university is a valid criterion for determination of merit to be awarded with a gold medal.;