Promotion from Class XI to Class XII must adhere to established criteria; negative equality cannot be claimed based on prior mistakes.

JUDGMENT :

(Rajesh Shankar, J.)

The present writ petition has been filed for holding and declaring the action of the Rajendra Vidyalaya, Sakchi, Jamshedpur (the respondent no.4) as bad in the eyes of law being arbitrary and malafide in transferring/demoting the petitioners from Class-XII to Class-XI as well as for issuance of direction upon the concerned respondent to allow the petitioners to continue in Class-XII in the respondent no.4 -school and consequently to forthwith register the petitioners with the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (the respondent no.3) for appearing in ISC-2025 examination.

2. Learned counsel for the petitioners submits that the petitioners passed their Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) Examination of Class-X in the year 2023 and were duly promoted/admitted to Class-XI in the respondent no.4 -school for the Session 2023-24. The petitioner nos.1 to 4 were admitted to the Commerce Branch, whereas the petitioner nos. 5 to 7 were admitted to the Science Branch of the said school. The petitioners duly appeared in the examinations conducted by the school in all the three terms and progress reports of the same were duly issued to them by the respondent no.4. However, since the petitioners were unable to secure the minimum required marks as per the norms laid down by the school, they were detained in Class-XI.

3. It is further submitted that out of 115 students in the Science Branch, 43 students failed and were detained in Class-XI. Similarly, out of 85 students in the Commerce Branch, 31 students failed and were detained in Class-XI. The parents of the said students approached the school authorities requesting to reconsider and re-evaluate the marks obtained by the students. However, the school did not respond. Thereafter, they approached the Sub-Divisional Officer, Dhalbhumgarh (the respondent no.1) who subsequently arranged a meeting between the school authorities and the parents. Moreover, under the guidance of the respondent no.1, a nexus was drawn between the parents and the school authorities for promoting the students from Class-XI to Class-XII, pursuant to which the parents furnished undertakings to the effect that their wards, who were detained in Class-XI, would be promoted provisionally (on trial basis) subject to the condition that they would have to secure good marks in the 1st Terminal Exam of Class-XII to be conducted by the school. The school, in turn, had assured to provide additional improvement classes to help the said students so as to make up the lost classes and further to help them in securing better grades in the upcoming Class-XII examination. In view of the undertakings furnished by the concerned parents, their wards were duly promoted to Class-XII and two separate sections i.e., Class-XII-B for Science students and Class-XII-D for Commerce students were formed. Pursuant to the formation of separate sections, the said students joined Class-XII after paying necessary fees to the school authorities.

4. It is also submitted that the students started attending the classes with the hope of receiving improvement classes for making up the lost time as assured by the school authorities, however no separate or additional class was held for them and the teachers instead pestered them to attend private tuition classes in order to complete and cope up with the lost syllabus.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioners further submits that Term-I examination was conducted for all the Class-XII students including the petitioners pursuant to which, the progress reports of the same were published by the respondent no.4 in which out of total 43 students in Class XII-B, 29 students failed and out of total 31 students of Class XII-D, 26 students failed. Subsequently, progress reports of Class-XII, 1st term exam of Session 2024-25 with respect to the petitioners were issued with comment that as per the agreement between the management, parents and the respondent no. 1, the