Maharashtra Board Can't Cancel Improvement Exam Result Merely Because Student Didn't Collect Marksheet Within 6 Months: High Court

A division bench of Justice AS Chandurkar and Justice Jitendra Jain allowed a writ petition filed by a student challenging the cancellation of his 2018 result and seeking issuance of the marksheet.

“We fail to understand the stand of Respondent No.2 (Maharashtra Board) as to when a student has cleared his re-examination with improved marks then merely because of the ministerial act of the student not having collected the marksheet, his result itself stands cancelled. There is no logic beyond such a refusal or cancellation”, the court held.

The petitioner initially obtained 55.37 percent marks in the 2017 HSC Examination. He opted for a re-examination in 2018 and secured 65.2 percent marks. Subsequently, he pursued preparations for the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (NEET) at the Allen Career Institute, Kota, Rajasthan, and intends to reappear in 2024.

In 2022, he requested the Maharashtra State Board to issue the marksheet for the re-examination conducted in 2018. However, the Board rejected the request, citing the petitioner's failure to collect the marksheet within six months of the result declaration, leading to the cancellation of the result.

The court noted that the objective of re-examination is to enable students to improve their scores for higher education opportunities. The Board's policy aims to facilitate students in enhancing their performance.

The court observed that while the Board's scheme for improvement exam has a provision for collecting the marksheet within six months on payment of certain fees, it did not have any provision stating that failure to collect the marksheet within six months would result in cancellation of results.

The petitioner explained that he was under a bonafide belief that he could collect the original marksheet from the college after his successful attempt at NEET examination, and realized only recently that he was mistaken, and therefore, immediately approached the Board for a revised marksheet. The court accepted his explanation and allowed the petition.

Therefore, the court directed the petitioner to approach the Board with a copy of the judgment, file an application for issuance of the revised marksheet, and surrender the original marksheet with the application. It directed the Board to inform the student of charges to be paid for issuance of new marksheet reflecting the improved score.

Upon payment, the Board is to issue the revised marksheet immediately. Additionally, on return of the 2017 Statement of Marks, the Board has to issue the Statement of Marks for the HSC Examination undertaken by the Petitioner in 2018 where he secured 424 out of 650 marks.

Case no. – Writ Petition No. 926 of 2024

Case Title – Soheb Sageerali Khan v. State of Maharashtra and Ors.