S. B. SINHA, C. J.

( 1 ) THIS writ appeal is directed against a judgment and order dated 9-7-2001 whereby and whereunder the writ petition filed by the appellant herein for the following relief:. . TO issue an appropriate writ or order or direction more particularly one in the nature of writ of mandamus declaring as illegal and arbitrary the action of the respondent in cancelling the petitioner s performance in all subjects in Senior Intermediate and debarring him from appearing for the Senior Intermediate Examination till March, 2002 and issue a consequential direction to forthwith evaluate the petitioner s Chemistry Paper II of Senior Intermediate and declare the result. was dismissed. FACTS:

( 2 ) THE appellant, who prosecuted first year Intermediate course during the academic year 1999-2000, secured 97% marks. He appeared for the second year Intermediate examinations, which commenced from 29-3-2001. On 12-4-2001 when the appellant has tagged on the answer sheets of Chemistry Paper II at 11. 55 a. m. , and was about to hand over them to Invigilator, he found two additional sheets written in ink on the floor behind his seat and reported the same to the Invigilator. The Invigilator asked him to hand over those scripts. When the appellant was handing over the additional scripts, the squad team entered the examination hall and booked a case of mal practice against the appellant.

( 3 ) THE case of the appellant is that he was thoroughly checked while entering the examination hall and having regard to his brilliant career, it could not be said that he had committed any mal practice. After obtaining the explanation from the appellant, the matter was referred to Malpractice Committee. On scrutiny, the Committee suspected that the appellant used additional answer sheets for the purpose of copying.

( 4 ) BY G. O. Ms. No. 539, Education; (V), dated 9-4-1975, the Governor in exercise of the powers conferred by Sub-section (1) of Section 17 read with Clause (1) of Section 2 of the Andhra Pradesh Intermediate Education Act, 1971, framed the rules relating to Committees of the Board. Rule 5 deals with the Malpractices Scrutiny Committee and it reads:i. It shall be appointed by the Board on the recommendation of the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Academic Affairs for scrutinising the cases of malpractices resorted to, at the Intermediate Examination and offering its advice to the Secretary; ii. It shall consist of not less than 4 members.

( 5 ) PURSUANT to our order dated 24-9-2001 the answers scripts of the writ petitioner-appellant have been produced. The assertions made by the appellant in the writ petition that he is a meritorious student appears to be correct. He has obtained the following marks :"english II 85 out of 100sanskrit II 97 out of 100maths IIA 75 out of 75maths IIB 69 out of 75physics 1157 out of 60"

( 6 ) THE learned Government Pleader appearing for Board states that if his results were published he would have topped the list of the successful candidates in the entire State.

( 7 ) UNFORTUNATELY the appellant is a victim of circumstances. He behaved like a disciplined boy when he found some papers lying on the floor. He brought the same to the notice of the Invigilator who in turn brought to the notice of the Superintendent.

( 8 ) THE Superintendent although referred the matter to the malpractice committee, he took the correct stand before it stating:"i submit that myself, the D. O. and the Invigilator thoroughly checked and every candidate of the Centre-0347, the sitting squad members also checked thoroughly all the students along with the candidate bearing Reg. No. 8045303 at the Centre. He was not in possession of any forbidden material. At 11. 55 a. m. after the warning bell was given, the candidate been the Reg. No. 8045303, tagged up his answer script, while standing up to handover his answer script to the invigilator, he found two additional sheets written in ink squattering on the ground not belonging to the C

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