Ahmed, a Muslim kills a cow in a market in the presence of Rohit, Tushar, Manav and Rahul, who are Hindus. Has Ahmed committed any offence?”
This was among the questions in a third-semester end term examination for law students of the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU).
The question formed a part of the Law of Crimes-I paper held on December 7. Of the colleges affiliated to GGSIPU, ten offer the LLB course and received the question paper.
As an image of the question paper surfaced on social media, the university, when contacted, said it “regretted” the question and decided to “delete” it, and that students will not be evaluated on their answer. Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia said he had ordered an inquiry into the matter.
“It is very bizarre and seems to be an attempt to disturb the harmony of society. We won’t tolerate such misconduct. I am ordering an inquiry, and if found true, strongest action will be taken,” Sisodia said.
Supreme Court lawyer Bilal Anwar tweeted the question on Monday and emailed the university and an affiliated college, one of whose students had shown him a copy of the paper, demanding action.
“Here is a new normal, de-humanising an entire community…. Is this what you are making the young legal minds to feel normal about? Categorically referring (to) communities in your question papers?” Anwar tweeted.
He tagged the Chanderprabhu Jain College of Higher Studies and School of Law in Narela, northwest Delhi.
Neeta Beri, dean, School of Law, told this newspaper: “I feel this is a hypothetical situation, and any situation can be presented before a court. We as students of law do not see it as controversial.”
Asked why religions were mentioned, she replied: “Do these things not happen in society? Where Hindus and Muslims live together these things do arise in our society…. This is only a situation our students have to be educated about.”
It was the university that had prepared the question paper for all its affiliated colleges. The exam papers are set by a committee of academics, selected confidentially by the controller from within or outside the university, which mainly offers professional courses.
N.R. Madhava Menon, the father of modern legal education in India, who founded three law institutes including the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences in Calcutta, said the question could “lead to mischief”.
“The matter could be examined in context. To mention the religion of a person is not an offence unless it’s a live case. But (whether) to ask such a question as an example is a matter of prudence…. In the hands of some people it could lead to mischief.”
He said he could not recall such a question having been asked in exams before.
Menon added that the question lacked enough “facts and evidence” of the case anyway for the students to know “what is being tested”.
The exam was held four days after a mob in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, went on the rampage on discovering bovine carcasses in a field and killed a police inspector who had probed the 2015 lynching of a Muslim over unsubstantiated beef rumours.
With Inputs from Telegraph & Indian Express
