A post-graduate law student at O P Jindal Global University has moved the Punjab and Haryana Court against the institute for failing him in the examination for allegedly using AI-generated content in his coursework. The varsity on Thursday stated that the LLM student has been issuing "factually incorrect, misleading and prejudiced statements in social and online media on the matter which has become subjudice with the malicious intention to influence public opinion and thereby decision-making" The petitioner, Kaustubh Shakkarwar, is specialising in Intellectual Property and Technology Law at Jindal Global Law School. "He appeared for his end-term examination in the course titled ‘Law and Justice in a Globalizing World’. When the submission was put through Turnitin, the Turnitin report highlighted 88% AI generated content in his end term submission for this course,” the university stated. The court’s order dated November 4 stated that "it was found by the evaluators of the respondent-University that the petitioner has allegedly indulged in copying and has copied to an extent of 88% of the examination on the basis of Artificial Intelligence, whereas there is neither any provision nor the same has been supplied to the petitioner despite repeated requests.” “The ordinance on the basis of which Unfair Means Case (UMC) was made against the petitioner and on the basis of which he was declared as fail is not uploaded on the website of the respondent-University.” it added. The university said that the student’s conduct was reported to the Unfair Means Committee of the University. "Given the high percentage of the AI generated content which challenges the sanctity and integrity of the examinations, he failed this examination in terms of UGC Anti-plagiarism Regulations, 2018. He was given a re-sit opportunity, which he undertook and later passed the course” it added. The varsity further said “this act (issuing factually incorrect, misleading and prejudiced statements in online media) of the petitioner is in abject disregard of judicial propriety, threatening the independence of judiciary. Such acts of social media discussion on matters sub judice has been condemned by the Supreme Court of India.” The university said it would pursue the case on merits before any legal forum and would also approach other relevant regulatory bodies/authorities to report the professional misconduct of the petitioner (who also happens to be an advocate and an officer of the court).” it said. The case is scheduled to be heard next on November 14 in the Punjab and Haryana High court.
