Telangana Inter board didn’t make grave error: HC

Hyderabad: The Telangana state government on Wednesday heaved a sigh of relief as the  High Court observed that there was no grave error on the part of the state government and Inter Board in the evaluation of the answer sheets of the Inter students and in declaring the results.

The High Court made these observations after it verified the answer sheets of 23 students, who had committed suicide, and despite the meagre number of students as many as 460 came to the Inter Board for revaluation, after the answer sheets of all the Inter first and second-year students were uploaded online to make it convenient for the students to know the marks they got for their answers in each subject.

Acting Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akther disposed of the PIL by the Balalal Hakkula Sanghan and a writ petition by advocate Rapolu Bhasker seeking prosecution against officials who erred in evaluating answer scripts of students who failed in the examination and payment of compensation of `50 lakh to the parents of 23 young students who committed suicide.

The Bench stated that it was very unfortunate that 23 young students committed suicide but at the same time, it could not ignore the fact that out of 23 students who lost their precious lives, even after re-verification and re-counting, 20 students still failed in the Intermediate Examinations and out of the other three students, two committed suicide prior to the declaration of results and another girl student had attempted only three papers and skipped the other exams.

Expressing deep concern and describing the death of 23 young lives as very unfortunate, the ACJ observed that all the students ended their lives owing to the huge exam pressure, which was a deep loss to their parents.

“Although, the parents cannot be compensated with the loss of their wards, the court was not in a position to direct the state and Intermediate Board to pay compensation of `50 lakh to each parent of the deceased student and further order for prosecution against the officials who erred in their work,” the bench observed.

However, the court gave the liberty to the principal secretary of Higher Education to initiate a departmental inquiry against the officials, who erred in the evaluation process, if it felt it was required.

After reverification and recounting, 1,183 students were found to have passed the examination, that too with one mark or two marks, which amounts to 0.16 percentage. The court observed that therefore it was not a grave error as described by the petitioners. Rejecting the pleas seeking re-valuation of answer sheets of all the students, the court said that as per the judgment of the Supreme Court, the court could not go deep into the issue of correction of answer papers as it was getting evaluated by an expert committee. The TS government and Intermediate Board had drawn severe flak.