A Co Tipperary student has been granted leave by the High Court to legally challenge a decision of his college authorities which he believes brands him as a cheat.
Mr Jonathan Lynch, whose address was given as that of his mother's shop, Newsworld, Market Place Shopping Centre, Clonmel, was told by Mr Justice Kearns he could judicially review the decision of Dublin Institute of Technology deeming him to have failed an exam. The college had held him to have breached its General Assessment Regulations and precluded him from repeating the exam until summer 2000.
Mr Remy Farrell, counsel for Mr Lynch, said his client was studying for a diploma in electrical and control engineering and in May sat an electrical power exam. He had forgotten to bring his permitted calculator to the exam centre and had borrowed one from another student at the last minute.
During the test, the examination invigilator lifted the lid of the calculator and noticed writing on it. She took the lid and told him she would have to do a report for the examination secretary. He had first noticed writing on the lid when she had lifted it.
Mr Farrell said it had been alleged in a letter from the college that his client had notes which were pertinent to the subject matter of the exam written on the lid of the calculator and he was invited to an oral hearing before a panel of inquiry.
The calculator lid had been shown to him and he saw there were written equations on it. Mr Justice Kearns granted Mr Lynch's application on a number of grounds alleging the application of unfair procedures during the inquiry hearing.