Santosh Kumar vs The State of Bihar and Others

S.N. Jha, J.—The Petitioner seeks direction to the Bihar School Examination Board (''the Board'' in short) to communicate the result of the scrutiny of the answer book of Sanskrit paper. The Petitioner had appeared in the Secondary School (matriculation) examination held in the year 1995. He filed application for scrutiny of marks in different papers including Sanskrit. It may be mentioned here that as per the mark-sheet, he was shown to have secured 49 marks in that subject. After scrutiny it was found that the Petitioner had secured 89 marks in the subject. In view of the wide discrepancy his case was referred to the Moderation Board. The Moderation Board awarded 83 marks. It however, also took the view that some interpolation had been made in the marks against question No. 14. The Examiner had awarded 8 marics whereas the question had only 4 marics. The Moderation Board thought that was an interpolation for ''4". In the circumstances, the Petitioner''s case was referred to the Unfair means Committee which decided not to make any change in the marks shown in the mark-sheet i.e. 49. The Board agreed with the recommendation of the Unfair means Committee.

Pursuant to the order passed by this Court counsel for the Board produced the answer book as well as the question paper of Sanskrit paper. I have gone through the answer book along with the question paper and verified the marks. It is true that the marks meant for question No. 14 was only 4 as against which the examiner awarded ''8'' marks. This appears to be bonafide mistake on his part. The question was in two parts and be mistake the Examiner awarded ''4+4'' marks instead of ''2+2''. The writing does not suggest interpolation whatsoever. The examiner appears to have a typical style of writing ''8'' and it is in that style that he had written at different places including at the end of the answer book where he has mentioned the aggregate of the marks secured by the Petitioner as 89. He, in fact, mentioned the said marks in words also.

The examiner awarded 4 marks each for question Nos. 4 and 15. As against that, the moderator awarded 3 marks each for those two questions. Therefore, does not appear to be any justification for the Moderator in revising the marks awarded by the examiner. The total marks awarded by the examiner, thus, being 89, after deducting 4 marks out of 8 awarded for question No. 14 the Petitioner has secured an aggregate of 85 marks.

After thus perusing the original record, I am satisfied that the Board committed error in refusing to change the marks and the decision of Moderation Board or the Unfair means Committee was not correct.

In the circumstances, I would direct the Board to issue revised mark-sheet to the Petitioner showing 85 marks in the Sanskrit paper within three weeks of the receipt/production of a copy of this order. The Petitioner''s result shall stand revised to that extent.

The writ petition is accordingly disposed of.