Students Shouldn't Suffer Due To Negligence Of School Staff : Bombay HC Directs Board to Declare Withheld Results of Class 12

A division bench of Justices Sunil Shukre and Anil Kilor asked the concerned Junior College to submit details of the three students for assessment to the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary Education and in turn, directed the Board to declare their results by September 15.

"We are of the opinion that for the fault, mistake and negligence of the clerk of the school and Principal of the school and failure of the School Management to exercise supervision of requisite degree over its staff members, the students who were otherwise regular in attendance and who had also appeared at the internal examination of 11th Standard, should not be made to suffer."

The bench said it was necessary to protect the academic interests of the three students, and the School Management must take steps to avoid such negligence in the future.

"Otherwise, their entire academic year would go waste and it would have a cascading effect on their future career and endeavours in the field of academics, which may also delay their efforts to establish and settle themselves in life", it added.

Sadhana Shikshan Mandal, the trust that runs Saraswati Junior College and the three students had approached the court stating that the college clerk had inadvertently failed to upload the examination forms and supporting details of the three students for evaluation to the Board.

On September 6, the bench ordered an inquiry into the matter and asked the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary Education to nominate either its Secretary or Joint Secretary of the investigation.

The inquiry report clearly showed that the three students had submitted their admission forms for the 12th standard examination as per the procedure. However, these admission forms were not uploaded due to the concerned clerk, Prashant Fulchand Waghmare's mistake and the Principal, Vinod Chetwani's negligence.

The clerk also failed to upload the requisite data comprising best marks obtained in three subjects of the 10th standard, the assessment of performance at 11th Standard, internal assessment, and marks of oral and practical examination on the Board's website, the report found.

In its final order, on September 9, the bench directed the College to submit the entire data of the three students - Jayant Mali, Nisha Pimpale and Krishna Sondkar - for assessment to Maharashtra State Board of Secondary Education, Divisional Board, Amravati.

It further directed the Board to carry out the assessment of performance of these three students as per the rules and declare their result latest by 3.00 p.m. on 15.09.2021.

Case Title: Sadhana Shikshan Mandal, Shegaon, Buldhana & Another v. State Of Maharashtra, Dept. Of School Education And Sports, Thr. Principal Secy., Mumbai & Ors.

Advocate AR Patil appeared for the petitioner-trust, Advocate Anand Parchure appeared for Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education and Advocate SV Sirpurkar represented the aggrieved students.

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