Point of law: It is the legitimate expectation of the students that the answers written are atleast looked at and appreciated for evaluation and in the case on hand, the script answer reports are treated as evaluation of answer scripts and no material is placed to satisfy that the evaluation of answer scripts, in fact, had taken place and script marks report is summary of such evaluation.”

ORDER:

This writ petition is filed ‘to declare the action of the 2nd and 3rd respondents in conducting the digital evaluation process contrary to the principles laid down in ‘Dr. P.Kishore Kumar vs. State of Andhra Pradesh, 2016(6) ALT 408’and ‘Dr. J.Kiran Kumar & others vs. State of Andhra Pradesh’, 2017(6) ALT 213 in respect of Post-graduate course examinations held in the month of August, 2020 and not furnishing copies of the answer scripts, as illegal and arbitrary.’

2. Case of the petitioners is that, they have appeared for final year examinations conducted in the month of August, 2020 i.e., 1st petitioner appeared for MS General Surgery, vide HT No.17M311001004, 2nd petitioner appeared for Diploma in Oto-Rhino-Laryangology, vide HT No.18M209004002 and the 3rd petitioner appeared for MD-Pathology, vide HT No.1656331; though they have written the examination well they were declared failed; lot of aberrations took place in the process of evaluation of the answer scripts; petitioners have a legitimate doubt about the method of evaluation; petitioners made an application under RTI to show the answer scripts and verified their answer scripts and they could not find any remarks evidencing actual valuation but they simply filled a tabular form appended to the original answer scripts; as per the scheme of evaluation, the answer scripts have to be scanned and sent to four examiners for digital evaluation; the imperfection in the process of digital valuation by the agency in respect of post graduate students was pointed out by this Court in Dr. P. Kishore Kumar’s case (supra) and the non compliance of the said direction in Dr.P.Kishore Kumar’s case was pointed out in Dr.J. Kiran Kumar’s case (supra); in Dr. Kishore Kumar’s case (supra), it was held that when the digital answer scripts were evaluated, stylus marks, tick marks etc. evidencing the application of the mind and award of marks have to be put on the digital paper. This Court in Dr.J.Kiran Kumar’s case (supra) pointed out that entering marks in the ‘script marks report’ is not sufficient and scanned answer sheets should show the evidence of evaluation; questioning the said evaluation, present writ petition is filed.

3. Counter-affidavit is filed by the 2nd respondent stating inter-alia that the University has introduced digital valuation (online valuation) of the answer scripts from May/June, 2016. The said work was entrusted to M/s Globarena Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad; as per the MCI regulations, the minimum pass marks in theory is (a) 40% marks in each paper separately i.e., 40/100 (b) 50% marks cumulatively in all the four papers for degree exam and three papers in diploma exam i.e., degree exam 200/400 diploma exam 150/300; the above change in minimum pass marks in theory of P.G. degree and Diploma exams is informed to the students; after announcement of the results of August, 2020, the University also provided a facility of re-totaling of the answer scripts; the University appointed a re-totaling committee for verifying the theory answer scripts of the candidates and the said committee met on 03.11.2020 and verified the re-totaling of theory answer scripts of the petitioners and the report of the Committee was also informed to the petitioners vide circular dated 04.11.2020; after the judgment in WP No.26929 of 2016 dated 13.10.2016, the University has taken steps to rectify the defects pointed out by this Court and improved the system of digital valuation; keeping in view the directions of this Hon’ble Court, the University made arrangements to evaluate the answer scripts on digital basis; the University has given a single booklet consisting of 68 pages and writable 64 pages each; after receiving the said booklets/ answer scripts, the University scanned the entire booklet; after verifying the same, the digital valuation has been started and the same was uploaded and sent to the valuation centers by the University; the answer scripts of the petitioners show that