There are child
prodigies in real life too. Akrit Pran
Jaswal (Apr 1993) is credited to have performed his first surgery at the age of
seven. A couple of years ago, 13 year old Sushma Verma became the youngest science
graduate from the Lucknow University and would become the youngest postgraduate in the country after she
completes M Sc in microbiology from Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University
(BBAU) in 2015. Sushma outdid her elder
brother Shailendra Verma’s feat of the youngest graduate. Shailendra was 14 when he completed BCA in
2007. Daughter of a daily wage labourer
and an illiterate mother, the girl holds
the distinction of being India’s youngest matriculate at a tender age of seven,
which found her a place in the Limca Book of Records.
Prodigies
are rare ! ~ still – only Superman can have education in reverse order is what Justice V
Ramasubramanian pronounced recently. Here is an interesting report from Times of
India, Chennai Edition. We follow a
particular order even in the matter of wearing costumes. The only exception to
this is comics' book hero Superman. People who complete educational courses in
reverse order can only be compared to Superman, the Madras High court said. “No one would have ever imagined that
people may acquire a postgraduate degree first, followed by an undergraduate
degree, and complete the higher secondary course to a kindergarten,“ said
Justice V Ramasubramanian, refusing to
permit a law graduate to enrol and practice in courts, as he had completed his
graduation course without clearing his Plus Two.
The matter relates
to a petition filed by G Bappudurai, who failed in one subject in Plus Two in
1999. Without clearing Class 12, he joined a bachelor's degree course under
Alagappa University's distance education programme. He obtained the BA degree
in history in 2010. Thereafter, he appeared for the arrear paper in Plus Two in
March 2010, and cleared it. He later
joined a three year law course in Tirunelveli Government Law College in 2010-11
and completed it in 2013. Though he was issued a provisional certificate, Tamil
Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University issued a show-cause notice to him after it came
to know that Bappudurai did not complete his education in the prescribed 10+2+3
format.
His counsel argued
that Bappudurai fulfilled the eligibility criteria in 2010-11 for joining the
three-year law degree course and that the university can't question it after
issuing the provisional certificate. Rejecting the argument, Justice
Ramasubramanian said, “When the expression `degree' was defined in the
statutes, the law makers never imagined the kind of inventions that could
happen in the field of education, entitling people to acquire all qualifications
in the reverse or perverse order. At the time when the expression `degree' was
defined in the statute, people would have honestly believed that a student
would undertake a journey from the first standard up to the school final in a
sequence and thereafter undergo the entire duration of the degree course.“
Pointing
out that the petitioner had not obtained his educational certificates in normal
sequence, the judge said he had not fulfilled the requirement of Rule 5 of the
Rules of Legal Education, 2008, and hence not entitled to use the degree for
enrolment as an advocate. However, as a consolation, Justice Ramasubramanian
made it clear that his degree would not go waste, and said: “If a private
employer is prepared to employ him on the basis of the law degree, I do not
wish to stand in the way . But, it will not entitle him to get enrolled as an
advocate.”
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
29th Jan 2015.
