Hyderabad: Re-tally of marks to be done by May 8

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court on Monday directed the Telangana State Board of Education to re-tally the marks of the 3.28 lakh students who have allegedly failed in the Intermediate exams conducted by the Board and to inform the Court by May 8 how many answer scripts have been re-tallied and how many students have passed after the marks have been re-counted.

A PIL was filed by the Balala Hakkula Sangham seeking re-evaluation of the 3 lakh odd answerscripts.

The division bench of Acting Chief Justice Raghavender Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Rajashekar Reddy, hearing the PIL, observed that after the re-tallying, even if around 90,000 or 45% of the students are found to have got through the examination, then the students have been benefitted.

Damodar Reddy, counsel for the petitioner, sought directions from the court to the Board, to first re-evaluate the answer sheets of the 21 students who committed suicide because their marks showed they had failed. The bench expressed its sorrow at the suicides due to the errors of the Board.

Emphasising the urgency of doing the retally, Justice Chauhan observed, “I understand from the press reports that, yes, there have been some defects in the software in tallying the marks. Perhaps correct marks have not been reflected in the marks memo of those kids who have done exceedingly well in the examination. The state has already mentioned that it would rectify the defects in the software by re-tallying the marks and announce the results.”

“The present situation which is prevailing in the state is a grave one, it is known to everyone…this court does understand the pain and agony of the parents of the students who succumbed to BIE errors,” he said.

The counsel asked the court to make the state liable for the incidents.

The bench expressed its sorrow at the suicides due to the errors of the Board, and responded that its own preference to deal with the issue is first to re-tally the marks, second, deal with the issue of those left out for revaluation after re-tallying the marks, third, to deal with the issue of whether the state should be made liable for the students’ suicides, and lastly, the quantum of compensation to be paid to the families of the deceased.

The court also asked the counsel for the petitioner what remains in his petition after the government has already announced re-evaluation of answer she-ets of the failed students.

The court opined that 100 per cent pass-out cannot be expected in the exams. But mistakes of the Board cannot create problems for the students who have performed well in the exams.

J. Ramchander Rao, Ad-ditional Advocate Gener-al, said that after re-tallying the marks, the Board will announce the results and marks on May 9. Justice Chaudhury said the announcement should be made on May 8, and the AAG said the details will be submitted orally.