DEEPAK KUMAR BANKA Vs. HEADMASTER GEORGE HIGH SCHOOL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONER , a student of George High School, Bargarh, has prayed for a direction to the said institution to promote him to Class 10 notwithstanding the fact that his attendance was 59.2% in Class 9 for which he was not granted promotion.

(2.) THE petitioner's case in short is that he has secured 112 marks in the Annual Examination, 1993 and students securing less marks than him have been promoted, and on the sole ground of having attended 59. 2% of the total classes, he should not have been detained in Class 9 and should have been promoted to Class 10. It is submitted that there is no bar for such promotion as there is no statutory prescription that a student should attend a minimum percentage of classes before he is promoted to next Class while in School. The learned counsel for Board of Secondary Education (in short, the 'Board') submitted that there is no provision in the Regulations of the Board of Secondary Education, Orissa (in short, the 'Regulations') relating to promotion of a student from Class 9 to Class 10 and the Board has nothing to do with inter -class promotion. The institution has, however, taken the stand that a student is not permitted to appear at the examination unless he is certified to have the requisite attendance in both Classes 9 and 10.

(3.) REGULATION 6 of Chapter X. Section I of the Regulation deals categories of student? who are to appear at the High School Certificate Examination and Regulation 6 (a) deals with regular students i.e., candidates who have satisfactorily prosecuted a regular course of study in Classes 9 and 10 at one or more high schools recognised by the Board, and who have been duly sent up for the Examination by the institution in question. Section II of Chapter X deals with regulations for regular, ex -regular and quasi -regular candidates. Minimum requirement eligibility to appear at the examination have been set out in various clauses. In this section requisite attendance aspect is provided in Regulation 21. The said Regulation stipulates that application forms of all regular candidates should contain certificates of attendance stating that the candidate has attended school for not less than 66% of the working days in each of the Classes 9 and 10, and the attendance for Class 10 is to be based on classes held till the test examination. Regulation 8 of Section I of Chapter X deals with categories of students who are eligible to appear at the supplementary High School Certificate Examination. Regulation 8 (a) deals with Supplementary regular candidates. The relevant provision reads as follows ; '3. The following categories of candidates are eligible to appear at the Supplementary High School Certificate