The Patna High Court on Thursday imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the Bihar School Examination Board for leaving an answer unchecked in the Hindi answer sheet of a Class 10 girl, reported The Indian Express. The court also ordered the board to award the student one mark for the unchecked answer.
Bhavya Kumari, a resident of Begusarai district and a former student of a girls’ residential school at Simultala in Jamui district, had secured the second rank in the matriculation exam in 2017. After the High Court granted her the one mark, her score equalled that of the Bihar matriculation topper of 2017, reported The Times of India.
Kumari had moved the High Court after going through her answer scripts which she secured through a transparency plea under the Right to Information Act in March. She had requested copies of her Hindi, Social Science and Sanskrit answer sheets in July 2017 after the results were declared in June.
Kumari’s counsel Ratan Kumar said they submitted before the court that three answers in Hindi and one each in Social Science and Sanskrit were not evaluated. The five answers were of six marks in total. Kumar said the BSEB accepted only one unevaluated answer.
“The Board… as a statutory body, has acted in most irresponsible manner while contesting the case of the petitioner,” said the High Court bench. The court ordered the board to revise Kumari’s results within two weeks and to pay Rs 5 lakh to the principal of the girl’s alma mater within three months for purchasing books and computers for the school.
The court also ordered the board to upload the answer sheets of the top ten scorers in Classes 10 and 12 exams in the future “to minimize the scope for recurrence of such controversies”.
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