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Gujarat High Court
Judgename :M.R.CALLA
SUNNY DHARAMPALSINGH CHAUDHARY THROUGH FATHER and LEGAL GUARDIAN - Appellant
Versus
GUJARAT SECONDARY EDUCATION BOARD - Respondent
S.C.A. 4045 of 1999
Decided On : 07/23/1999
Education and University – Gujarat Secondary Education Act, 1972 – Section 17 (33) – Gujarat Secondary Education Regulations, 1974 – Regulation no. 47 – Constitution of India, 1950 – Article 226 – Penalty for acts of misconduct of a candidate in connection with the Examination – Communication with regard to this punishment to both these students is sent by the Examination Secretary of the Board to the Principal of School – Aggrieved from this punishment of cancellation of their 1999 Examination on the allegations of use of unfair means in the Music Theory paper, both these petitioners have approached this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India – Whether petitioners have been given reasonable opportunity before passing impugned orders in the facts and circumstances of these cases – Whether material on basis on which impugned orders have been passed could be said to be a material sufficient to establish the guilt of the students for the purpose of passing the impugned orders and as to whether it is a case of no evidence – Held, Material on basis of which punishment is given is not of any probative value and virtually it is a case of no evidence – Court does not find it to be a fit case even to remand the matter – Even otherwise in such cases, the careers of young students cannot be put to any prejudice at the altar of the repeated inquiries when the students have been found to be punished on the basis of the material of no probative value – Request for remanding matter for inquiry again is, declined – Therefore quashing and setting aside the orders by which the examinations of petitioners have been cancelled has to follow the direct and legal consequences for the declaration of their result of the Examination of Xth Std. in which they have appeared and the cancellation of which has been found to be illegal – Petitioners cannot be denied the fruits of the labour put in by them and therefore the respondent Board is directed to declare the result of the present petitioners within a period of 15 (fifteen) days from today and it is also ordered that in case the petitioners are successful at this Examination of Xth Std. they will also be considered for the purpose of admission to XIth Std. in the respective Institutions and would not be made to suffer any prejudice on account of delayed declaration of the result because of the impugned orders passed by the Board and because of the pendency of these matters and they will also not be put to any disadvantage in the matter of attendance in the next higher class – Special Civil Applications allowed. (Paras 14 and 15)
( 1 ) THESE two petitions are based on identical facts and involve common questions of law. I, therefore, propose to decide both these petitions by this common judgment and order.
( 2 ) THE petitioners herein were studying in Xth Std. at St. Xaviers High School, Gandhinagar. They have come with the case that they are students with good academic record throughout and in one of the petitions, the petitioner Sunny Chaudhary has also annexed copies of marksheets of the Examinations of VIIth, VIIIth and IXth Stds. to evidence the fact that he has been a First Class student. He has also annexed the copy of the marksheet at page no. 20 of this petition to show that he has been given Grade-I in the Xth Std. itself for the First and Second Terms. Regarding the other petitioner namely, Master Sushant Chopra, it has been stated in paragraph 4 of the petition that he has been studying in the St. Xaviers High School, Gandhinagar since IIIrd Std. and he has throughout passed with distinction marks and never failed in a single subject. Both these students claiming good academic record as First Class students, appeared in the Xth Std. Examination conducted by the Gujarat Secondary Education Board, hereinafter referred to as the Board, in the month of March 1999. They had appeared in all the papers of the Secondary School Certificate Examination and the last paper was that of Music, held on 27th March 1999, whereas the examinations had actually commenced on 15th March 1999. Both these students have been punished by the Board on the allegation of use of unfair means in this Music Examination which was held on 27th March 1999 and they have been visited with the punishment of the cancellation of the 1999 Examination as a whole. The communication with regard to this punishment to both these students is sent by the Examination Secretary of the Board to the Principal of the St. Xaviers High School Gandhinagar. Aggrieved from this punishment of cancellation of their 1999 Examination on the allegations of use of unfair means in the Music Theory paper, both these petitioners have approached this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.
( 3 ) WHEN the Special Civil Application No. 4045 of 1999 came up before this Court on 21. 6. 1999, the notice returnable for 28th June 1999 was issued and in Special Civil Application No. 4686 1993 the Rule and notice as to interim relief was issued on 2nd July 1999 and made returnable on 14th July 1999. In Special Civil Application No. 4045 1993, the Rule was issued on 8th July 1999.
( 4 ) IN Special Civil Application No. 4045 of 1999 in the form of pleadings, apart from the petition as was filed by the petitioner, an affidavit-in-reply dated 30th June 1999 was filed by one Shri P. U. Vyas, Secretary, Gujarat Secondary Education Board, to which an affidavit-in-rejoinder dated 2nd July 1999 has been filed by the petitioner, followed by a further affidavit-in-rejoinder dated 19th July 1999 and an additional affidavit of respondent no. 1 dated 21st July 1999 has been filed. In Special Civil Application No. 4686 1993, the affidavit-in-reply dated 15th July 1999 has been filed on behalf of the Board through its Assistant Secretary, Shri G. T. Bhil.
( 5 ) IT appears from the documents available in Special Civil Application No. 4045 1993 that, by the office of the Board, a letter dated 9th April 1999 was sent to the Principal of the School where the two boys were studying, informing the Principal that the petitioners had been found to be using unfair means in the paper of Music on 27th March 1999 and the Principal may obtain written reply and may also send him the copies of the two Forms which were enclosed with this letter. One of these Forms is with regard to the demand of personal hearing and the other was a notice in which it was mentioned that the petitioner had been caught with a booklet on Music with 14 pages in the paper of the Theory of Music on 27th March 1999 and that for the use of unfa
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