SUNILKUMAR GAYAPRASAD MISHRA Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE two appeals are directed against conviction of the appellants by the learned 2nd Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Nagpur, for offences punishable under Sections 420, 468, 471 and 120-B read with Sections 34 and 109 of the Penal Code.

(2.) FACTS, which led to prosecution and conviction of the appellants, are as under : in 1999, a scandal of bogus degrees, mark-sheets and unwarranted increase of marks at various examinations conducted by the Nagpur University surfaced. Conduct of examinations, evaluation of answer papers and declaration of results are governed by the provisions of Ordinance No. 9 issued by the Nagpur University. This did not provide for revaluation, which facility was made available by Ordinance No. 159. After revaluation was permitted by the Ordinance, the practice followed, as elicited from the evidence on record, is as follows :

(3.) A student had to apply for revaluation within twenty days from the issuance of mark-sheet. After a candidate applied for revaluation after paying the prescribed fee, an entry used to be taken in the Revaluation Tabulation Register (hereinafter referred to as the RTR for the sake or brevity ). The RTR contains the following columns : i) Sr. No. VIII) Original Marks II) Roll No. IX) Marks of 1st examiner in revaluation III) Date and amount X) Marks of 2nd examiner in revaluation IV) Name of candidates XI) Average marks in both v) Case No. /code No. XII) Result/change or no change vi) Subject paper XIII) % increase or decrease vii) Maximum marks XIV) Signature of scrutineer xv) Remarks the Clerks in the Revaluation Section used to fill up column nos. (I) to (IV) and (VI) to (VIII) on the basis of the material which they already had. Requisition for relevant answer books used to be sent to the godown. After the answer books were received, the portion of the answer book containing roll number of the candidate and marks obtained by him in the original valuation used to be masked. A code number used to be printed on the answer book by using a numbering machine.