CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDARY EDUCATION Vs. VINEETA MAHAJAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SPECIAL leave granted.

(2.) VINEETA Mahajan, respondent in this appeal, appeared in Class XII examination conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education, Delhi, in the month of March, 1993. She sat for the Political Science paper on March 16, 1993 in the said examination. During the course of examination, the invigilator found the respondent in possession of written -material in the shape of three small pieces of paper kept in the pencil box. The matter was reported to the Central Superintendent. Proceedings in respect of the charge "for using unfair means at the examination" were initiated by the Result Committee of the Board. The respondent was examined by the said Committee on July 19,1993. She admitted having kept the said papers in the pencil box but she stated that she had not used the same while answering the question paper. According to her she arrived at the examination hall late - due to car puncture on the way - and, as such, was utterly confused and panicky and in that mental state she forgot to take out the papers from the pencil -box before entering the examination hall. The Deputy Superintendent of the Examination Centre stated before the Committee that she had given the usual warning in the examination hall about the possession of undesirable material by the examinees. When questioned by the Deputy Superintendent the respondent answered that she was too tense to hear the warning. The Committee found the respondent guilty of using unfair means at the Examination and as a punishment her examination for the year 1993 was cancelled. She challenged the said order by way of a writ petition before the Delhi High Court. The High Court allowed the writ petition and quashed the punishment awarded to the respondent. This appeal by way of special leave is against the judgment of the High Court.

(3.) IT is no doubt true that the said provisions raise presumptions that the candidate is guilty of using unfair means if, inter -alia, written material is found on the person in the examination. But this is a rebuttable presumption and it can be seen whether infact the material was not used.... We find here in this case that the result committee, having come to a positive finding that the petitioner had not copied despite having written material on her person, ought not to have imposed any penalty. Having come to the conclusion, on facts, that the petitioner had not copied, the question of imposing any penalty merely on the presumption of some written notes being found with the candidate, could not be arrived at, on the facts and circumstances of the present case. The decision of the respondents of cancelling the result for the year 1993 did not flow, in other words, from the finding of fact which that authority itself had arrived at. This Court is merely correcting the error which has crept in the impugned order. For the aforesaid reasons, this writ petition is allowed. The decision of the respondents in cancelling the examination of the petitioner for the year 1993 is quashed and the respondents are directed to declare the result of the petitioner within two weeks from today."