Grace marks not matter of right: High Court [Read Judgment]

The Punjab & Haryana HC has made it clear that students can't seek grace marks as a matter of right. The High Court also held that the rules providing for award of grace marks promote mediocrity & this can't be the goal of any education system. Asking the students to put in their best effort during the examinations, the Bench also told them not to rely on grace marks.

Justice Sudhir Mittal also ruled there was no provision for grant of grace marks to Class IX students under the amended rules. Only Class XI students were entitled to the same. The ruling came on a petition filed by a Class IX student against the Central Board of Secondary Education & other respondents.

The petitioner’s grievance was that he wasn't granted grace marks in social science paper. He had taken the Class IX examination during academic session 2018-19, but failed in the subject by securing 28 out of 100 marks. In the supplementary examination, he obtained 21 out of 100 marks. His representation for the grant of grace marks was also turned down, following which he took recourse to a legal notice.

In the absence of action on the legal notice, the petitioner approached the High Court by filing a writ petition, which was dismissed as withdrawn with liberty to file a fresh writ petition.

In response to another legal notice sent subsequently, the petitioner’s demand was rejected on the ground that a maximum of 10 grace marks could be awarded, out of which a maximum of four could be awarded in a subject in accordance with amended Article 106 of the Education Code.

Seeking grant of five grace marks, the counsel for the petitioner submitted that the amended Rule 106 was applicable only to Class XI & above. The petitioner took the Class IX examination & unamended Rule 106 was applicable to him.

“The argument is totally illogical. Once a Rule has been amended, the old provision ceases to exist. It gets replaced by the amended provision. In amended Rule 106, there is no provision for grant of grace marks to Class IX students. Only Class XI students are entitled... The increasing tendency amongst students to seek grace marks as a matter of right is deprecated,” the Bench asserted while dismissing the petition.

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