The Telangana High Court on Wednesday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) petition and another writ petition seeking prosecution against Intermediate Board officials against the backdrop of 23 intermediate students ending their lives over the results.
A division bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Shameem Akther observed that the reports submitted by the government showed out of the 3,82,166 students, whose answer scripts were reverified and marks recounted, 1,183 students had passed. This translates into an error of 0.16% by the Board of Intermediate Education authorities in evaluation of answer sheets.
The bench said 0.16% error cannot be grave as described by the petitioners, Balala Hakkula Sangham and Rapolu Bhaskar. Earlier, it had directed the officials to take up reverification of answer scripts of students who had failed in the intermediate final year exams after hearing the PIL and writ petitions.
The petitioners charged negligence of the authorities drove 23 students to commit suicide. They sought direction to the government to initiate action against the officers concerned and pay compensation to the families of the students who ended their lives. The bench observed that the death of 23 students was unfortunate.
However, it must be noted that 20 out of the 23 students who committed suicide, did not get pass marks even after reverification and recounting. Of the remaining three students, two ended their lives before announcement of the results. The third student, who also resorted to the extreme step, appeared for only three exams and skipped the remaining ones, the Special Government Pleader Sanjeev told the bench.
The bench did not agree with the prayer of the petitioners that the Board officials should be prosecuted as the error percentage was not so high. It also turned down the plea that families of the students, who ended their lives, be paid compensation. The bench, however, said the government was at liberty to proceed with departmental inquiry in the matter.
