Allahabad High Court
Km. Azra Khanam vs State Of U.P. & 3 Others on 21 December, 2015
Bench: Pankaj Mithal
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD
AFR
Court No. 38
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 23888 of 2015
Petitioner :- Km. Azra Khanam
Respondent :- State Of U.P. & 3 Others
Counsel for Petitioner :- Mohammad Asif,Mohammad Arif
Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Pankaj Mithal,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Standing counsel for the respondents no. 1,2 and 3.
The petitioner who was an examinee of the High School Examination-2014 has filed this petition seeking a direction upon the respondents to incorporate the marks obtained by her in the subject of Urdu in place of Home Science and consequently to issue a revised marks sheet.
The petitioner was a regular student of Alpsankhayak Aksa Public Inter College, Beesalpur, District Pilibhit. She was registered as a student of class IX in the session 2012-2013 with the subjects Hindi, English, Urdu, Science, Social Science and Drawing without any objection from the respondents. After qualifying class IX examination, she was promoted to class X. She filled up the High School Examination Form of the Board and again offered the aforesaid six subjects. The examination Form of the petitioner was accepted. She was issued admit card with Roll Number 1128389 to appear in the High School Examination-2014 to be conducted by the U.P. Board of High School and Intermediate Examinations (hereinafter referred to as the Board). She appeared in all the papers of the above subjects and was issued certificate cum marks sheet of the High School Examination-2014 under the signatures of the Secretary of the Board. The aforesaid marks sheet does not show the marks obtained by the petitioner in the subject of Urdu and instead shows marks in Home science wherein in its two papers she has been marked 'Absent' but in the total has has been awarded 11 marks with the remark 'F', meaning that she had failed in the subject of Home Science. However, in totality the petitioner was declared to have passed the High School Examination.
The marks as awarded to the petitioner in the certificate cum marks sheet issued to her are as under:-
Subject
Max.Marks
Obtained marks
Total
Grade
Result
Hindi
A2
Passed
Eng.
A2
Home
Science
AAF
AAF
11F
Science
A2
Social
Science
A2
Drawing
A1
The grievance of the petitioner is that she had not offered Home Science as the subject in the High School and therefore the certificate cum marks sheet issued to her incorrectly shows Home Science as one of the subjects opted by the petitioner and absent in both its papers with 11 marks in Home Science. At the same time, the marks of the petitioner in the subject of Urdu in which she has appeared in the examination have not been shown in the said certificate cum marks sheet. This is an error apparent on record.
The Court permitted the petitioner to move an application for amending the writ petition. An application for amending the writ petition was filed. Apart from seeking amendment by adding two paragraphs and certain grounds, a prayer for amending the relief clause was also made so as to permit her to appear in the examination of Home Science and to incorporate the marks thereof in place of Urdu in her High School certificate cum marks sheet 2014. The application had remained pending, as there is no order allowing or rejecting the same.
A counter affidavit has been filed on behalf of respondents no. 2 and 3. In the counter affidavit it has been stated that the combination of subjects offered by the petitioner in the High School were not permissible. The subject of Urdu was not a subject which could have been permitted with the combination of other subjects offered by the petitioner. The petitioner has been shown absent in the two papers of Home Science as she had not offered it as a subject though it ought to have been one of her mandatory subjects in the High School. The Principal of the College ought not to have permitted the petitioner in class IX and X to study the subject of Urdu which did not form the part of the combination. It was the responsibility of the concerned Principal and the superintendent of the center to have ensured that the petitioner offering wrong combination of subjects is not permitted to appear for the examination. In these circumstances, petitioner is not entitle to any correction in her High School certificate cum marks sheet.
Chapter XIII of the Regulations framed under the Intermediate Education Act, 1921 provides that for High School Examination of the Board a candidate has to offer at least 6/7 subjects. It further provides for three mandatory subjects which include:-
1) Hindi/Elementary Hindi;
2) One modern Indian Language ie. Urdu, Gujrati, Punjabi etc;
Or
One modern foreign language ie English, French, German, Russi, Nepali etc;
Or
One classical language ie. Sanskrit, Pali, Arbi, Farsi and Latin; and
3) Maths/Elementary Maths
Or
Home Science (for girls only)
In view of Regulation 1 of Chapter XIII of the Regulations, a girl candidate could have offered Hindi as the first compulsory subject, one Indian language which includes Urdu or one foreign language which includes English as the second compulsory subject and Maths/Elementary Maths or Home Science as the third compulsory subject in High School. However, the petitioner though correctly offered Hindi as one of the compulsory subjects, incorrectly chose Urdu and English both as the second compulsory subject whereas she could have opted only for one of them. Lastly, she failed to offer Maths/Elementary Maths or Home Science as the third compulsory subject.
In this situation, petitioner could have either taken Urdu or English as the second compulsory subject and at the same time ought to have taken Maths/Elementary Maths or Home Science as the third compulsory subject.
It is in view of the above wrong and the double choice of the second compulsory subject and omission to choose the third compulsory subject that the Board skipped her marks in the subject of Urdu and added Home Science as the third compulsory subject while issuing the certificate cum marks sheet of High School to her.
In the first place if the petitioner had made a wrong choice of the subjects in her Examination Form it should have been been rejected out rightly but this was not done and she was issued admit card and was allowed to take examination as per the subjects offered by her. The Board clearly fell in error in not stopping the petitioner at the stage of submission of the examination Form, if the choice of her subjects was not legally permissible for appearing in the examination.
Secondly, the Board having allowed the petitioner to take the examination as per the subjects offered by her, it had no authority of law to skip the marks of any subject in which the petitioner had appeared or to add any subject which was not offered by her that too without her consent. The Board in these circumstances ought to have declared the result of the petitioner by showing marks obtained by her in the subjects as offered by her with the endorsement if necessary that as the combination of compulsory subjects offered by her is not permissible, she is not entitled to be declared to have qualified the examination.
Lastly, the petitioner had made a wrong choice of one of the compulsory subjects. She could have chosen one Modern Indian Language or one Modern Foreign Language ie. either Urdu or English but not both of them. The Board retained the subject of English and has deleted Urdu from her marks sheet. This could not have been done by the Board without the consent of the petitioner. The petitioner may have opted for Urdu in which she may have scored better marks in place of English. The Board could not have made the choice on her behalf. Similarly, the Board has added Home Science as the third compulsory subject of the petitioner without her consent. The petitioner had the choice of offering Maths/Elementary Maths or Home Science as the third compulsory subject. The petitioner if given a chance may have opted Maths/Elementary Maths. Thus, this is another area where the Board went wrong in declaring the result of the petitioner.
In view of the aforesaid facts and circumstances, the Board manifestly erred on all the above three counts in issuing the certificate cum marks sheet to the petitioner without incorporating her marks in the subject of Urdu and by adding the subject of Home Science.
The request of the petitioner to allow her to appear in the Home Science examination of High School and to incorporate the marks obtained by her therein in her High School certificate cum marks sheet 2014 is not tenable in law as the procedure of High School Examination-2014 is already over and the petitioner who has not offered Home Science as the subject which includes practical also can not be permitted to take the said examination without undergoing regular studies of the said subject. Therefore, the application for amendment of the petition is misconceived and stands rejected.
The Secretary of the Board who is present in person is expected to take notice of the omissions on part of the Board referred to above and to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in future. The Court intended to award damages or impose costs but on the assurance of the Secretary to improve the system, the Court has resisted itself in awarding damages or imposing exemplary cost.
In the peculiar facts of this case, the petitioner is entitle to have a revised certificate cum marks sheet of her High School Examination-2014.
In the aforesaid background, the petition is disposed of with the direction to the Board to declare the result of the High School Examination-2014 of the petitioner in the subjects as offered by her ie. Hindi, Urdu, English, Science, Social Science & Drawing only ie., by deleting Home Science as the subject offered by her and by adding the marks of Urdu which was one of the subjects offered by her.
The revised certificate cum marks sheet shall be issued by the Board within a period of two months of the production of the authentic copy of this order before the Secretary of the Board.
The writ petition is disposed of.
SKS
December 21 , 2015.
