Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Pradip Karak vs The State Of West Bengal & Ors on 25 November, 2021
Item No.4
In The High Court At Calcutta
Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction
(via video conference)
25.11.2021
Ct-24
WPA 74 of 2021
Pradip Karak
v.
The State of West Bengal & Ors.
Mr. Uday Sankar Chattopadhyay
Mr. Santanu Maji
... for the petitioner.
Mr. Subir Sanyal
Mr. Ratul Biswas
... for the Board.
The petitioner intends to be recruited as a primary
teacher.
The National Council for Teacher Education
(NCTE) has laid down the prescribed qualification in the
notification dated 28th June, 2018 which is required for
being appointed as primary teachers under the
provisions of the Right of Children to Free and
Compulsory Education Act, 2009. It mentions that the
qualification will be graduation with at least 50% marks
and Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.).
The petitioner is a scheduled caste candidate and
in his case there is 5% relaxation in the qualifying
percentage of marks, i.e. the scheduled caste candidate
is required to obtain minimum 45% marks in the
graduation examination.
2
The petitioner has scored 44.59% in graduation
examination. The petitioner accordingly became
unsuccessful in the selection.
According to the petitioner the principle of
rounding off of marks ought to be applied and the
petitioner ought to be treated as eligible for appearing in
the examination.
The petitioner relies upon an unreported order
dated September 15, 2015 passed by an Hon'ble
Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court in the
matter of Special Appeal Defective No. 607 of 2015, Ajeet
Yadav & 6 ors. v. State of U.P. & 7 Ors with Special
Appeal Defective No. 637 of 2015, Sitaram & 3 Ors. v.
State of U.P. & 8 Ors. wherein the Court applied the
principle of round off of marks in terms of the NCTE
Guidelines.
The petitioner submits that the same principle
ought to be applied in his case.
The learned advocate representing the West
Bengal Board of Primary Education submits that there is
no provision for relaxation of marks by way of round off.
The learned advocate appearing for NCTE also
submits that there is no guideline at present for
rounding off of marks for the purpose of relaxation.
The learned advocate representing the
respondents relies upon the judgment delivered by the
Hon'ble Supreme Court in the matter of Taniya Malik
v. Registrar General of the High Court of Delhi,
reported in (2018) 14 SCC 129 paragraph 22 which
mentions that with regard to the question of rounding off
of the marks, in our opinion, when a particular
aggregate is prescribed for eligibility, a person must meet
the criteria without relaxation. It is not permissible to
enhance the marks by rounding off method to make up
the minimum aggregate.
The aforesaid decision of the Hon'ble Supreme
Court clearly lays down that enhancement of marks by
way of relaxation is impermissible.
In the instant case the minimum requirement was
obtaining 45% marks. The petitioner scored 44.59%,
which is less than the marks prescribed in the eligibility
criteria.
It is not open for the Court to grant relaxation by
way of rounding off of marks by enhancing the marks
obtained by the candidate to reach the prescribed
minimum marks as mentioned in the advertisement.
If the prayer of the petitioner for relaxation is
entertained by the Court, there will be several other
similar circumstanced candidates who may come
forward with their prayer for relaxation of the prescribed
eligibility criteria. The same will open floodgates, which
the Court should not permit.
In that view of the matter, no relief can be granted
to the petitioner in this writ petition.
The writ petition fails and is hereby dismissed.
Urgent photostat certified copy of this order, if
applied for, be given to the parties after completion of all
legal formalities.
Sh (Amrita Sinha, J.)
