The cancellation of exam results for alleged unfair means without direct evidence or proper justification violates procedural fairness and equality rights under the Constitution.

JUDGMENT :

ANANDA CHANDRA BEHERA, J.

1. This writ petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, 1950 has been filed by the petitioners praying for quashing the impugned memorandum dated 08.10.2025 (Annexure-4) issued by the Under Secretary (Confidential), Central Board of Secondary Education, Regional Office, Bhubaneswar (Opp. Party No.3) and for issuance of necessary directions to the Opp. Parties to publish the result of the petitioners, in respect of their Senior School Certificate Examination (Class-XII) within a stipulated time and to pass such other order/orders or direction/directions as the Courts deems fit and proper in order to give complete relief to the petitioners.

2. The case of the petitioners is that, they (petitioners) were the regular students of Class-XII of Padampur Public School in the District of Bargarh. They (petitioners) appeared their Senior School Certificate Examination, 2025 (Class-XII) under the Central Board of Secondary Education in Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya, Bandupali as the regular students on the basis of the admit cards vide Annexure-1 series issued to them by the CBSE (Opp. Party No.1). Though, in the said examination, they (petitioners) had done extremely well, but their results in the website were published on dated 13.05.2025 reflecting UFM (Unfair Means) and no marks have been awarded to them in any paper. Subsequently, the Principal, Padampur Public School, Padampur provided them the Official Order dated 26.05.2025 issued by the Opp. Party No.2 (Regional Director, Central Board of Secondary Education, Regional Office, Bhubaneswar) stating that, subjects i.e. Mathematics (Subject Code: 041), Chemistry (Subject Code: 043), Biology (Subject Code: 044), Economics (Subject Code: 030) & English (Subject Code: 301), the petitioners result in the said subjects have been cancelled for adoption of unfair means (UFM) as the answers in some questions given by them (petitioners) in the subjects i.e. Chemistry and Mathematics are similar with their adjacent students, for which, their entire result of 2025 has been cancelled.

To which, the petitioners challenged the same by filing WPC Nos.15942 & 17272/2025 praying for quashing the cancellation of their results and to direct the Opp. Parties to publish their results.

The said Writ Petitions vide WPC Nos.15942 & 17272/2025 of the petitioners were decided analogously with other writ petitions by this Court and the Judgment thereof was passed on dated 15.09.2025 as per Annexure-3, wherein the C.B.S.E (Opp. Party No.1) was directed to make an enquiry in terms of Bye-Laws 36 of the CBSE after giving reasonable opportunity of participation to the petitioners stipulating the outer limit of that enquiry within two weeks keeping all the contentions of the parties open.

In pursuance to the said analogous Judgment passed on dated 15.09.2025 in WPC Nos.15942 & 17272/2025 along with other WPCs vide Annexure-3 by this Court, the CBSE (Opp. Party No.1) conducted an enquiry into the matter through its UFM Sub-Committee and during the course of that enquiry, the UFM Sub-Committee of the CBSE supplied a printed format to the petitioners asking them 18 questions each in the form of yes or no such as i) whether he/she has adopted unfair means or not, ii) what is the name of his/her principal iii) Do you know the invigilators etc.

Out of the said 18 questions, the above 3 questions were not related to the subjects in question.

3. Thereafter, a copy of the memorandum dated 08.10.2025 vide Annexure-4 series were issued by the Under Secretary (Confidential)