The Delhi High Court has directed the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to re-evaluate an answer to a question in the Class XII political science examination after a student said the Board was against revaluation despite verification of the answer sheet revealing that she has been marked wrongly.
The CBSE said a circular issued by it on May 24 allowed re-evaluation only in English core and elective, Hindi core and elective, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Business Studies, Economics and Accountancy.
2015 judgment
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Referring to a 2015 judgment of the court, a Bench of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva held that “bylaws stand on a much higher footing than circulars. Once re-evaluation has been permitted by the bylaws, the CBSE, by a circular, cannot restrict the right to only some subjects. The court also held that the CBSE cannot whittle down the aforesaid bylaw and, while prescribing the manner, also restrict the subjects in which re-evaluation can be sought”.
In the instant case, the petitioner had appeared in the All India Secondary School Certificate Examination, 2016. Upon declaration of her results, she had doubts over her marks and applied for verification and a photocopy of her answer sheet.
She discovered that she had been awarded zero marks against question no one even though she claimed to have written the correct answer provided in the marking scheme released by the respondent and also the NCERT textbooks.
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CBSE said a circular issued by it did not allow re-evaluation of Political Science answer sheets