Right To Appear In Exams Akin To Right To Life : Allahabad High Court Orders Special Exam For Student Left Out Over Portal Glitch

The Allahabad High Court has observed that the right to appear in an examination is akin to the right to live with human dignity enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution. Adding that a student's future cannot be jeopardised due to “technical lapses” or administrative inertia, a bench of Justice Vivek Saran directed a Prayagraj-based university to conduct a special examination for a B.Sc. student who was denied an admit card because the university portal failed to update her admission records. The case in brief A writ petition was filed by Shreya Pandey, a first-year B.Sc. (Biology) student at Urmila Devi PG College, Handia, affiliated with the Rajju Bhaiya University. It was her case that she had duly deposited her fees on July 16, 2025, and attended classes for the academic session 2025-2026. However, when the examination schedule was published, she was not issued an admit card. Essentially, the issue was that her records could not be updated on the University's “Samarth Portal” within the prescribed date, although her candidature/application was available on the Portal in draft form. Noticing the error, the College made a representation to the University stating that the records of around 30 students, including that of the petitioner, were not updated. Though later, the records of 25 students were updated, the petitioner's record was again not updated. Therefore, only due to the lack of record updation on the 'Samarth Portal', the petitioner was denied the opportunity to appear in the examination, as the University could not issue her an admit card. High Court's order Justice Saran took a grim view of the University's stance as she noted that the authorities had explicit knowledge of the non-updation and that the data existed in draft form, and despite this, they did not take any action. The bench also highlighted that the University counsel failed to inform the Court of any standard procedure undertaken when such technical errors are brought to their notice. Against this backdrop, the Court relied on its HC recent order in Rahul Pandey vs. Union of India 2025 wherein it was held that “appearing in the examination in question is a fundamental right guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India”. The Court also referred to Delhi HC's decision in the case of Re: Master Prabhnoor Singh Virdi (Minor Son) vs. Indian School And Another, 2023, wherein a similar stand was taken that not to allow the student to take the examination would infringe the right of a child akin to the right to life as guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India Thus, noting that the petitioner was not at fault and her future should not be jeopardized “only on the technical lapses”, the High Court issued a mandatory interim direction. “The University is directed to hold special examination for the petitioner for B.Sc. (Biology) Ist Semester Course for academic session 2025-2026 within a period of two weeks from today and is further directed to publish the result within a reasonable period of time so that the petitioner may pursue her further studies”, Justice Saran ordered. The Court also directed the University to take all appropriate steps to update the petitioner's records within a reasonable period of time, so that her 'future' is secured. Meanwhile, the counsel for the respondent University was asked to file a counter-affidavit bringing on record the procedure adopted by the University when it receives information of an inability to update the web portal. The matter is listed for further hearing on February 10. Case title - Shreya Pandey vs. State Of U.P. And 2 Others 2026 LiveLaw (AB) 26 Case citation : 2026 LiveLaw (AB) 26 Click Here to Read/Download Order

Right To Appear In Exams Akin To Right To Life : Allahabad High Court Orders Special Exam For Student Left Out Over Portal Glitch

Sparsh Upadhyay

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