DOGGA V GEORGE Vs. GOVTOF A P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) "as we age, the mystery of time more and more dominates the mind. We live less in the present, which no longer has the solidity that it had in youth; less in the future, for the future every day narrows it's span. The abiding things lie in the past.-John Buchan.

(2.) THIS writ petition has been instituted calling in question the correctness of the orders passed by the State Government rejecting the request for condonation of age by more than five years to enable the writ petitioner to appear for SSC public examinations to be held in March, 2008. The writ petitioner whose date of birth is 21. 12. 1998 was prosecuting his studies at the 4th respondent school. He was showing tremendous progress at his school and in particular in subjects such as Mathematics, Science, Social studies etc. It is also stated that the petitioner had participated at various talent examinations conducted and he seems to have come out in such examinations in flying colors. The Head Master of the school has represented to the State Government taking up his cause soliciting condonation of age so as to enable him to appear for the ssc examinations scheduled to be conducted during March, 2008. As per the policy of the State - as set out in their G. O. Ms. No. 63, Education (K-2)Department, dated 16-01-1969, the students are required to have attained the age of 14 years onor before 31st August of the academic year in which the candidate studies his/her X class, for appearing at the SSC examinations. Since the writ petitioner was falling short of 5 years of age by 31. 8. 2007, the Director of government Examinations has taken up the issue with the Government of Andhra pradesh. The State Government considered the entire matter and rejected the request of the Head Master of the School for condoning more than five years of age to enable the writ petitioner to appear for the said examinations. The state Government was not inclined to condone as many as five years of age, as, perhaps in its opinion, it might visit the petitioner with disastrous consequences at a latter point of time. The grievance nurtured by the petitioner is two fold : (1) The State Government through Memo dated 27. 12. 2003 passed orders condoning more than three years period in the case of Ms. Venkata soujanya to appear for the SSC examinations slated to be conducted during March, 2004. Similarly, even as on 12. 02. 2008 in the case of Sri J. Srijith, the State government passed orders condoning a little more than two years to enable the said candidate appear for the examinations during March, 2008 and when it came to the case of the writ petitioner, the request has been unjustly turned down. (2) Instances are not lacking where highly gifted children are permitted to appear for examinations, which are not merely the scholastic examinations, but even University end examinations. The petitioner was seeking to draw inspiration from a news report that one Sri Tadhagath Avthar Tulasi who is just 20 years of age is being conferred with a Doctoral Degree of Ph. d. from the internationally renowned Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore. He contends that gifted and highly talented children should be encouraged, instead of being discouraged from taking to the school end examinations.

(3.) WITH age man becomes wiser and youthful follies give way for virtues of later life. To know how to grow old is the master work of wisdom and undoubtedly one of the most difficult chapters in the 'great Art of Living of humanity'. Those who have been entrusted with the task of prescribing the curriculum to be pursued commensurately with the advancement of age have therefore thought of, very carefully enough and prescribed certain minimum ages as the essential requisite criterion for appearing for the examinations. Physical growth and the commensurate intellectual growth are all matters of assessment mostly based upon the calculation of average standards of the society. But, surely there can be instances where the extraordinarly gifted and superbly skilled individuals keep arriving on the scene not quite infrequently. They defy the normal laws and phenomenon of aging and show great sense of maturity and wisdom right from a very young age. Such cases call for an exception to be carved out from the normal rule which is otherwise applicable for an averagely gifted child. Since the assessment of the intellectual ability and the dexterity to handle stresses of life even at the prime of age, are factors which are mostly capable of being ascertained not by the superficial dictates, but upon a careful analysis of certain well defined scientific data and since Courts do not have such capacity, consequently prefer to place heavier reliance upon the expertise available both with the administrator as well as the institutions which are capable of giving expert advice on the subject. As was already noticed supra, the policy maker has chosen an age of 14+ years as the most appropriate and suitable age for a child to appear for the SSC (X Class public examinations) and the margin of flexibility for condoning the gap in this regard has been pegged at two or three years, at best. In such special cases, the State Government alone was exercising such powers. But since in the present case, the petitioner has been soliciting condonation of more than five years of age, I solicited the assistance of the Professor and Head of the Department of psychology of Andhra University. Accordingly, the Head and Director, consultant Psychologist, Centre for Psychological Assessment and Counselling, andhra University has undertaken the assessment of the writ petitioner and accordingly subjected him to the following four tests on 2. 4. 2008 and 3. 4. 2008 :