JOSHI, J.—These 29 writ petitions by respective 29 petitioners are directed against a vigyapati dated 24-8-1973 of the Board of Secondary Education Rajasthan, hereinafter called the Board, cancelling the examination of the petitioners for the year 1973 and further debarring some of the petitioners to appear at the ensuing Secondary Examination to be held in the year 1974. They shall be decided by a common order.

2. The material facts which are almost identical and are also not in dispute in all these petitions briefly stated are these: The Examination for the Secondary Arts was held by the Board at its various centres in March/April, 1973, one of the centre for the aforesaid examination being the Rajkiya Kanya Uch Madhyamik Vidhyalaya, Beawar, which shall be hereinafter referred to as the Beawar centre. The result of the said examination was declared on 14th of July, 1973 but the result of the petitioners was with-held and not announced. On 16-7-1973 a show cause notice in identical terms was served on the petitioners whose result was earlier with held. Under the show cause notice it was averred that from the examiners report and other sources it has been found that the student appearing at the Beawar centre had resorted to unfair means at the examination. It was further averred that from the answer books of the elementary arithmetic of the aforesaid petitioners it is evident that the petitioners had resorted to unfair means at the examination. Under the terms of the said notices the petitioners were called upon to submit their reply to the show cause notice before 21st of July, 1973, and further to appear before the Jaanch Adhikari on 24th/25th July, 1973, in the premises of Rajkiya Patel Uch Madhyamik Vidhyalaya Beawar. It is also not in dispute that before the show cause notice was issued, the Board had received the examiners report complaining of the unfair means used by the petitioners. On 4-7-1973 the results committee, a competent body under Rajasthan Secondary Regulation (hereinafter called the Regulation) to deal with the disciplinary matters on the ground of unfair means had appointed an expert Shri M.C. Goyel the senior teacher in the mathematics to submit his report on the answer books in the arithmetic paper to the committee The expert submitted his report on 4 7-1973 wherein he had opined that the petitioners are guilty of unfair means by either copying from the copy of another or allowing another to copy from her copy. The petitioners submitted their reply to the aforesaid show cause notices which were sent by registered post. In the reply the petitioners repudiated the allegations levelled against them in the show cause notice and inter alia asserted that they had never indulged in unfair means. It was further complained therein that the show cause notice did not specify the charges and the same are vague. On 24/25th July, 1973, some of the petitioners appeared before the enquiry officer who recorded their statements. In the statement each of the petitioners appears to have been asked as to whether many of the answers in arithmetic tallied with the answer of another examinee. The answers of petitioners were obtained after showing them the answer book of another candidate with whose answer the petitioners answer tallied and the petitioners had admitted that many of the answers did tally with those of the another examinee. Each of the petitioners denied that they had copied or allowed any person to copy It was further stated that the petitioners have nothing to say further. On 24-8-1973 each of the petitioners received a cyclostyled copy of a vigyapati purporting to have been issued by the Pariksha Niyantrik (the controller of the examination) whereby she was informed that her examination result of the Secondary Examination has been cancelled. In cases of petitioners Indra Methi (99183), Resham Babel (99282), Kum. Pushpalata (99266). Tripta Joshi (76285), Kaushlaya Gupta (92199), Geeta Ghaudhary(99174), Indra Gup

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