SUBHAM BANERJEE Vs. BOARD OF SECONDARY EDUCATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition has been filed by a candidate of High School Leaving Certificate Examination conducted by the Board of Secondary Education, Assam (for short 'the Board) for directing the respondents to announce the results of revaluation of his answer scripts and for a direction for revaluation of the answer scripts of the petitioner toy examiners other than those of the Board.

(2.) The brief facts as stated in the writ petition are that the petitioner appeared in the High School Leaving Certificate Examination conducted by the Board in March '97 with Roll No. 219 and Code No. 0453. His case is that he was a student of Don Bosco High School, Guwahati whose students are known for excellent performance in the High School Leaving Certificate Examination and he was sure of obtaining at least First Division Marks. But when the results of the examination were announced on 18.6.97 the petitioner was surprised to learn that he got Second Division with total marks of 523, which were short of First Division by 17 marks. On receipt of his mark sheet therefore he applied for revaluation of all his answer scripts except Hindi and Fine Arts and deposited a sum of Rs.250/- on 8.7.97 for such revaluation. But the results of such revaluation were not announced. The petitioner, therefore, sent a notice dated 14.9.97 through his Advocate Dr A.K. Bhattacharjee to the Board to announce the results of the revaluation of his answer scripts as requested by him. But he did not receive any reply to the said notice of his Advocate. Aggrieved, the petitioner has filed this writ petition for appropriate reliefs. An affidavit- in-opposition has been filed on behalf of the Respondent Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 stating inter alia that no such notice was received by the Board from the Advocate of the petitioner and that the re-examination was done in accordance with the Regulations and the results of the re-examination were notified vide notification dated 9th July, 1997 of the Board and thereafter the answer scripts were disposed of after 6 months after publication of the results by selling the same to one Sri DipakSarma on 31.3.98, 9.4.98, 17.4.98 and 18.4.98.

(3.) At the hearing Dr A.K. Bhattacharjee, learned counsel for the petitioner, submitted that in the notification dated 19.7.97 annexed to the affidavit-in-opposition by the Respondent Nos. 1 to 4, the name and Roll number of the petitioner is not mentibned and therefore the results,of the re-valuation for which he deposited fees of Rs.250/ on 8.7.97 have not been announced by the Board so far. Dr Haren Das, learned counsel appearing for the respondents, on the other hand, referred to the provisions of Regulation 48 of the Regulations for the conduct of the examinations by the Board framed under Section 24 of the Assam Secondary Education Act, 1961 and submitted that the said regulation only provided for re-examination of the answer scripts but did not provide for any revaluation of the answer scripts. He contended that since there was no provision in the said regulations for revaluation of the answer scripts of the petitioner, the request for revaluation made by the petitioner is misconceived. He stated that the notification dated 19th July '97 issued by the Secondary of the Board, copy of which has been annexed to the affidavit-in-opposition of Respondent Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 as Annexure 'B' would show that in cases where re-examination was requested and it was found that there were mistakes in the totalling or entry of marks, the results were revised. According to Dr. Das, since re-examination of the answer scripts of the petitioner did not reveal any such discrepancy, his results were notrevised and remain the same.