MP High Court Slaps Cost Of ₹25,000 On Sanskrit Board For Evaluation Lapse; Board Admits Mistake, Assures HC Of Proper Valuation

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The principal bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court at Jabalpur recently imposed a cost of Rs25,000 on the State Sanskrit Board and directed it to provide a corrected mark sheet to the petitioner, a Class 10 student.

As per the order passed by Justice Vishal Mishra, the petition sought directions to the respondent Sanskrit Board to re-evaluate the petitioner’s Sanskrit answer book through a neutral subject expert examiner in a fair manner, in accordance with the model key answers, under the supervision of the High Court if deemed fit. It also sought issuance of a fresh mark sheet after adding the enhanced marks in the Sanskrit subject.

Advocate Rakesh Kumar Patel, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that some answers in the Sanskrit paper were not evaluated by the examiner engaged by the board.

The petitioner stated that with proper evaluation, she would have secured a place in the district merit list. She has faced mental agony since 2018 due to the examiner’s error, as answers to questions 5, 6, 9, 10, 14 and 15 were not properly assessed. The petitioner, claiming to be meritorious, said her name should have appeared in the district merit list.

The respondent board admitted that the examiner did not evaluate the answer sheet correctly. It informed the court that the Sanskrit answer sheet would be re-evaluated and a fresh mark sheet would be issued.