MEHAKDEEP KAUR Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This judgment shall decide CWP Nos.19780, 20299 and 20308 of 2021 as common questions of fact and law arise therein. The petitioners in all three cases are school students whose final result of Class-X/Class XII respectively has been quashed by the Board of School Education Haryana- respondent No.4 (hereinafter referred to as the Board) after the same was declared. CWP No.19780 of 2021 has been preferred by students of Class-XII whereas the other two petitions have been preferred by the students of Class-X.

(2.) Should a Court of law comment on the actions of an Administrator, is one of the questions which arises in this writ petition. In my considered opinion if the Administrator does not exercise his powers judiciously and prudently and the same results in injustice, the Court can certainly comment on the actions, so as to make them aware about the expectations from such Administrators especially when they are dealing with young students who comprise the bulk of the human resource of the nation.

(3.) The facts in brief as extracted from CWP No.19780 of 2021 are that Haryana Senior Secondary School-respondent No.6 (hereinafter referred to as the private school) has been running since 1995-96. It started functioning with temporary affiliation with the Board which was converted to permanent affiliation upto Class-VIII in the year 2002. In the year 2003, the said private school applied for permanent affiliation upto Class XII but due to lack of adequate infrastructure in terms of area available, buildings and hygiene norms, permanent affiliation was not granted. Temporary affiliation was, however, granted on a year-to-year basis upto academic year 2019-2020. On 5/9/2019, the State of Haryana passed an order withdrawing recognition to the private school and automatically its affiliation with the Board came to an end. The petitioners took admission in Class-XII and Class X respectively after 1/4/2020 and the result in question pertains to the Session 2020-21. On conclusion of the academic session, normal off-line exams could not be held on account of Covid-19 pandemic. The matter was being considered at the highest level when on 10/6/2021, the Director, Secondary Education Haryana wrote to the District Education Officer, Panipat that application for provisional affiliation of the private school had been rejected by the competent officer on 30/3/2021 and keeping in view the interests of the students, they be transferred to the nearby Government school. A copy of this letter is on record as Annexure P-1 and the same has been endorsed to the Board as well.