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2014 Supreme(Cal) 800
CALCUTTA HIGH COURT
Biswanath Somadder, J.
Papri Dey – Petitioner
Versus
State of West Bengal and Others – Respondents
W.P. Nos. 16548, 16549, 17315, 20800 (W) of 2014
Decided On : 31-07-2014
For the Petitioners: Santanu Chatterjee, Subrata Mukhopadhyay, Shamit Sanyal, Basabi Raichoudhury, Daisy Basu, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, Bikram Banerjee, Sudipa Dasgupta and Paramita Banerjee.
For the Respondents: Nirmal Kumar Manna, Sanatan Panja, Supriya Chattopadhyay, Ranjana Guha, Chama Mookherji and Paramita Pal.
For the Primary Board : Lakshmi Gupta, Subir Sanyal and Ratul Biswas.
For the Murshidabad : Aninda Bhattacharya and Kamalesh Bhattacharya.
In the context of an ambiguous question in a Teacher Eligibility Test, the court relied on a researched report from the National Library to determine the correct answer and awarded full marks to candidates who had provided the answer supported by the report.
Headnote:
TET EXAMINATION - AMBIGUOUS QUESTION - CORRECT ANSWER - AWARD OF MARKS - MALARIA DISCOVERY BY RONALD ROSS - SECUNDERABAD OR KOLKATA - RESEARCH REPORT BY NATIONAL LIBRARY, KOLKATA - FULL MARKS TO BE AWARDED TO CANDIDATES FOR ANSWERING KOLKATA.
Fact of the Case:
In the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) Examination held on 31st March 2013, an objective type question was asked: "Mosquito is the vector of Malaria - Which city of India is famous for this discovery by Ronald Ross?" The options given were (A) Kolkata, (B) Chennai, (C) Allahabad, and (D) Secunderabad. The petitioners, who had answered "(A) Kolkata" as the correct answer, challenged the marking of their answer as incorrect by the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, which considered "(D) Secunderabad" as the correct answer.
Finding of the Court:
The court directed the National Library, Kolkata, to research its archives to determine the correct answer. The library's report, based on four authentic archival sources, concluded that Ronald Ross's discovery of the mosquito as the vector of malaria was conclusively established in Calcutta (now Kolkata) after his initial observations in Secunderabad.
Issues: 1. Whether the answer provided by the petitioners, "(A) Kolkata", was incorrect. 2. Whether the West Bengal Board of Primary Education was justified in marking "(D) Secunderabad" as the correct answer.
Ratio Decidendi: 1. The court relied on the exhaustively researched report prepared by the National Library, Kolkata, which concluded that Ross's discovery was conclusively established in Calcutta. 2. The court observed that the question was ambiguous and left scope for further research due to historical records being blurred regarding the precise moment of discovery. 3. The court held that it was unfair to saddle aspiring primary school teachers with such an ambiguous question.
Final Decision: The court directed the West Bengal Board of Primary Education to award full marks to the petitioners for answering "(A) Kolkata" as the correct answer. The board was also directed to recalculate the petitioners' total marks and consider their eligibility for becoming primary school teachers accordingly.
Biswanath Somadder, J.
1. In all these writ petitions, an interesting question comes up for consideration and that is whether Ronald Ross made his discovery of mosquito, being the vector of malaria, in Secunderabad or in Calcutta (now Kolkata). An answer to this question is required because it will determine the fate of the writ petitioners, all of whom had appeared in the Teacher Eligibility Test 2012 Examination, which was held on 31st March, 2013, wherein an objective type question was asked with four options given, which is set out herein-below:
"Mosquito is the vector of Malaria - Which city of India is famous for this discovery by Ronald Ross?
(A) Kolkata
(B) Chennai
(C) Allahabad
(D) Secunderabad"
2. All the writ petitioners had written "(A) Kolkata" as the right answer. All of them later found out that their answer "(A) Kolkata" has been marked incorrect. According to the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, "(D) Secunderabad" was the correct answer. The petitioners have now approached this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India specifically stating that the correct answer to the question was "(A) Kolkata" and not "(D) Secunderabad" which would be borne out from copies of documents/records including extracts from various prescribed secondary level text books annexed to their writ petitions.
3. On 3rd July, 2014, this Court, upon considering the submissions made by the respective parties, was of the view that a clear answer to question should lie somewhere in the archives of the National Library, Kolkata. As such, this Court directed the Director General, National Library, Kolkata, to depute a competent person to research the archives in order to find out the correct answer and apprise the Court accordingly on the next date.
4. Subsequently, these matters came up for consideration on 24th July, 2014. The report of the Director General, National Library, Kolkata, based on research of the National Library archives was placed on record through the office of the learned Registrar General. On the prayer of the learned Advocate appearing on behalf of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education, a copy of the report prepared by the National Library, Kolkata, was directed to be circulated amongst the parties.
5. Today, the writ petitions are taken up for final disposal. Learned Advocate appearing on behalf of the West Bengal Board of Primary Education seeks leave to file an affidavit taking exception to the report filed by the Director General, National Library, Kolkata, which may be taken on record.
6. Learned Advocates appearing on behalf of all the parties have extensively submitted on the issue raised as to what the correct answer to the question should be. Learned senior Advocate for the State accepts the contents of the research-based report prepared by the National Library, Kolkata.
7. The concluding portion of the report prepared by the National Library, Kolkata, based on research of its archives, reads as follows:
"In Conclusion
At Secunderabad "an extremely lucky observation" ... "gave the clue; but even then the success was a miracle of luck."
Sir Ronald Ross still needed repeatable and predictable results to "prove the theory" on the one hand, and also to make some more discoveries to solve the "Great Problem."
The anniversary of the day of this "fundamental discovery" at Secunderabad, 20 August, he would subsequently call the "Mosquito Day."
Ronald Ross believed that "These two observations [at Secunderabad] solved the malaria problem. They did not complete the story, certainly; but they furnished the clue." He stated that "the great difficulty was really overcome and all the multitude of important results which have since been obtained were obtained solely by the easy task of following this clue."
However Ronald Ross was transferred from Secunderabad on British Army duty about which he remarks that "it would be difficult for others to understand the effect of this cruel blow" and as a result his malarial r
