The Punjab and Haryana High Court (HC) has upheld Panjab University’s (PU) decision to disqualify a BA LLB student from taking examinations for two years after he was caught cheating during his Law of Contract paper in December 2023. The decision, as reported by Bar and Bench, was challenged by the student, but the court dismissed the plea, citing the ethical foundations of the legal profession.

Justice Jasgurpreet Singh Puri stressed the importance of maintaining integrity within the legal community. “The petitioner is a student of LLB and he would be a future lawyer. The legal profession is a noble profession and is governed by legal ethics. This court therefore does not deem it fit and proper to grant indulgence in its exercise of power under Article 226 of the Constitution of India,” the judge observed. 

Advocate Mohit Jaggi represented the petitioner, while Advocate Subhash Ahuja appeared for the respondents.

The student was found guilty under Regulations 5(a) and 8 of PU’s University Calendar Volume II, 2007, after objectionable material in his handwriting was recovered and confirmed to match the content copied in his answer book. 

While the petitioner argued that the two-year disqualification was excessive and damaging to his career, PU maintained, as Bar and Bench reports, that the punishment adhered strictly to the rules.

Ultimately, the court saw no grounds to lessen the penalty. "The regulations... provide for two years of disqualification, and there is no reason for this court to give any punishment which is lesser than the same,” it ruled, as noted by Bar and Bench.