The Bombay High Court last week ordered the Maharashtra Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (MSHSEB) to rectify the class 12 results of a Nashik based student, declared in August, this year. The HC has also ordered the college to pay Rs 25,000 for causing grave inconvenience to the student.
A bench of Justices Shahrukh Kathawalla and Milind Jadhav was hearing a petition filed by Snehal Deshmukh, a resident in Panchavati, Nashik.
Snehal in her plea sought to rectify her mark sheet issued on August 3. She claimed that her mark sheet reflected one of the subjects as Biology, which she never opted for. She claimed that she had in fact opted for Maths as one of the subjects for her HSC exams.
"Since she opted for Mathematics as her subject and desires to pursue further studies in the Engineering faculty, it is contended that due to the erroneous HSC result which states that she has obtained 84 marks out of 100 in Biology, she is unable to further apply to engineering colleges," the bench noted.
She claimed that the mistake was on part of her college, which didn't feed the correct data on the board's portal.
The college too accepted it's mistake and agreed with Snehal to rectify the results.
The board, however, relied upon a Government Resolution GR issued in July this year, wherein it is stated thatthere is no procedure contemplated for change of subjects after it is verified and fed by the concerned College in the computer system of the board and further there is also no provision for verification and revaluation of marks, hence the board is not empowered to carry out any correction in Snehal's result.
The judges, however, noted that the Maharashtra Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Boards Regulations provide that in case where it is found that the result of the examination has been affected by error, malpractice, fraud, improper conduct or other matter of whatsoever nature, the Divisional Board on the recommendation of the Standing Committee has the power to amend the result.
"Therefore, it cannot be disputed, but is rather admitted that an error ormistake has occurred only due to the negligence of the college. The management of the college has failed to exercise the required supervision over its staff members / data entry operators / teachers and Supervisors who are responsible for feeding the concerned data and carrying out verification and certification of the pre-list," the bench said.
"Even otherwise, our judicial wisdom / conscience does not permit us to accept the reasoning of the Board which would not only result in the whole academic year of the student being wasted, but would have a cascading effect on the entire future career of the student, and all for no fault of the student," the bench held.
The judges, accordingly imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the college, "for causing grave inconvenience to the student only because of the negligence on the part of its concerned staff members."
