High Court fines Gurugram school over zero marks to pupil

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, December 5

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has come to the rescue of a student who was given zero marks in the Class X theory examinations after a Gurugram-based school swapped her results with that of her namesake. To make matters worse, her request for result correction and issuance of a corrected marksheet was also rejected.

Justice Vikas Bahl ordered the issuance of a fresh marksheet-cum-certificate for the secondary-level education examination as expeditiously as possible and penalised the school of Rs 30,000.

However, the student said she did not want the compensation, with her counsel informing the Bench that she was only concerned about her future. Although she suffered grave loss in terms of time due to the school’s error, she did not want any compensation, the counsel added.

Justice Bahl took note of the submission that the schools in Haryana were closed following the pandemic. As such, a conscious decision was taken to upgrade/pass the students to the higher class on the basis of the school’s assessment. The school, therefore, prepared the result of the petitioner along with those of other students for the Class X examination before submitting it to CBSE.

Justice Bahl observed that the school record revealed that there were two students with the same name, Riya. The other girl had, however, left the school after passing her matriculation examination in June 2021 from the Board of School Education, Bhiwani.

Justice Bahl asserted that due to the school’s fault, the petitioner had to undergo mental torture and CBSE had to bear litigation expenses for no fault on its part. The school’s casual approach was apparent from the fact that it chose not to appear to assist the court.

Justice Bahl said the board and another respondent submitted that they had been dragged into unnecessary litigation. “Accordingly, this court imposes cost of Rs 30,000 on the school and directs it to deposit the amount within six weeks from today with the board, and produce the receipt of the same before the Gurugram DC, ” Justice Bahl said.