The Madras High Court Bench here has held that it cannot entertain writ petitions seeking compensation for alleged forcible issuance of Transfer Certificates to government school students and that the victims could seek remedy only by instituting civil suits.
Justices Nooty Ramamohana Rao and S.S. Sundar passed the ruling while refusing to admit a writ appeal filed by G. Panchavarnam accusing the headmaster of a government higher secondary school in Virudhunagar district of issuing a TC to his academically weak son.
Stating that his son was readmitted in the same school after much persuasion, the petitioner claimed that he and the student suffered great agony during the interregnum period just because the headmaster wanted to boast of 100 per cent pass in public examinations.
A single judge had dismissed his writ petition on April 11 on the ground that writ jurisdiction could not be invoked in issues involving factual disputes.
He, however, left it open to the petitioner to institute a civil suit seeking compensation for the damage reportedly suffered by the student. Concurring with the decision taken by the judge, the Division Bench said that it, however, shared the concern of the appellant’s counsel R. Alagumani that students from rural and economically poor background would be put to hardship if they were forced out of school in the middle of an academic year.
“The State government, we are confident, will take appropriate measures by instructing the schools to desist from adopting any such measures if some of the students are found to be weak in academics. Government schools are required to put in place corrective measures so as to identify the areas where students require improvement and then address the problem in a meaningful manner.
“Issuing Transfer Certificates to such of those students who are found to be weak in academics is no solution. The aim of every school, however laudable, might be to secure 100 per cent result, but the same should be to ensure that all students acquire necessary degree of skill and knowledge and the same cannot be measured with the results published,” the Bench said.
Court says knowledge and skills acquired
by students cannot
be measured by
results alone
