Glaring Malpractice Of Examiner: Madhya Pradesh HC Rules In Favour Of Student Seeking Marks Revaluation; Imposes ₹25k Cost On Education Board
The Madhya Pradesh High Court directed the M.P. Board of Secondary Education (MPBSE) to award marks of the 12 wrongly scored off answers to a student and also imposed a fine of Rs. 25,000/- on the Board.
The Jabalpur Bench was deciding a Writ Petition filed by an aggrieved student, praying for revaluation of marks awarded to him in Higher Secondary School Certificate Examination 2023 (Class-12th) in the subject of Mathematics.
A Single Bench of Justice Vivek Jain observed, “In the present case, there was a glaring malpractice of the examiner where he misconducted in evaluating the objective type and one word type questions contrary to the model answer key. It was a fit case to invoke clause 117. The Board which deals with adolescent students cannot permit such malpractice and injustice with a candidate to take place and get unremedied."
The Bench remarked that if the examiners evaluate the answer scripts contrary to model answer key of the Board itself, and the position is not remedies, the faith of the students in the examination system of the Board is bound to be shaken, and that should be the last which a responsible education would allow to take place.
Advocate Vijay Pandey appeared for the Petitioner while Advocates Anjana Shrivastava and Amit Mishra (Panel Lawyer) appeared for the Respondents.
In this case, the Higher Secondary School Certificate Examination (Class 12) was conducted by the MPBSE in 2023. The Petitioner alleged that 14 answers to objective type and one-word answers were incorrectly evaluated for the examination which showed that specific questions in his answer sheet were marked incorrect even though they matched the model answer sheet provided by the Board. Initially, 14 questions were in dispute and upon the Court’s review, 13 questions were found to be wrongly evaluated out of these.
The Board had already corrected 1 Question, leaving 12 questions still in dispute. The Board contended that, as per Regulation 119 of M.P Board of Secondary Education Regulations, there is no provision for revaluation of answer scripts, hence, no relief can be granted to the Petitioner. On the other hand, the Petitioner argued that even though there is no provision for revaluation in the Regulations of the Board, yet it is a fit case for interference as it is an exceptional case where material irregularity has been committed by the examiner.
The High Court after hearing the contentions of the counsel, noted, “… the Board seems to be ignorant of Regulation 117 of its own Regulations, known as the Board of Secondary Education Madhya Pradesh Regulations, 1965.”
The Court further said that the Board is having power to correct the result in case it is established that there has been an impact on the result by error, malpractice, fraud improper conduct, or other matter of whatsoever nature.
“If it was case of subjective answers, the position would have been different, so would have been the case where there was any dispute with correctness of the answer key, where the Board could have pleaded benefit of doubt”, it added.
The Court, therefore, concluded that in this case, the answers are objective/one word type and Board itself has issued the model answer key and 12 answers are scored off as wrong contrary to model answer key, the Petitioner has made out a case against the Respondents.
Accordingly, the High Court allowed the Writ Petition, directed the Board to award marks for 12 wrongly evaluated questions and issue a revised mark sheet, and imposed a cost of ₹25,000.
Cause Title: Saket Tiwari v. M.P. Board of Secondary Education and Others
