SC stays Patna HC order to re-evaluate student’s answer sheet of CBSE exams

THE Supreme Court has stayed the judgment of the Patna High Court directing the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to re-evaluate the answer sheet of a student for Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics of the class 12th Examination, 2018 held by the CBSE.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy passed the order while issuing notice to student Keshav Narayan.

The CBSE contended that the high court allowed the re-evaluation without recognizing the procedure which mandated that a candidate must first obtain the answer books and if on perusal of the same is still unsatisfied, apply for re-evaluation.

As per the CBSE's Rules, the right to re-evaluation is for only those candidates who first apply for obtaining a photocopy of the evaluated answer book.

It was argued by the CBSE that the student, Keshav Narayan, did not obtain a photocopy of the evaluated answer books and thus there was no question of any right of evaluation of the answer books. The CBSE also submitted that though the student was aggrieved by the marks he obtained in Mathematics, the marks for the 2020 main examination also showed that he had obtained compartment in Mathematics and had not performed well in Physics and Chemistry.

The CBSE claimed that 33 lakh candidates take the examination and if this process was not followed strictly, the reevaluation process itself would become unworkable.

In the high court, the CBSE had submitted that the petitioner had not followed the valid time schedule and the procedure for re-evaluation and as such the CBSE was helpless in considering his case for re-evaluation. The single-judge bench, however, allowed the petition with a direction to the CBSE to re-evaluate the answer sheet of the petitioner provided the petitioner completed the formalities for re-evaluation i.e. obtaining a photocopy of the answer sheet and thereafter paying the offline fee if the online fee was not accepted.

The CBSE had preferred an appeal before the division bench of the high court which was dismissed.

Click here to read the SC order