The Madras High Court Bench here on Monday summoned Tiruchi Chief Educational Officer to explain steps taken so far with respect to 262 Plus Two students whose physics answer scripts went missing reportedly during transit from Musiri to Coimbatore, during the public examinations held in March 2010.
A Division Bench of Justices R. Sudhakar and V.M. Velumani directed the CEO to be present in the court on October 12 and submit a status report on the issue since a public interest litigation petition, pending since 2010, had sought for monetary compensation to all the 262 students, besides ordering a fullfledged enquiry into the issue to fix responsibility on the officials concerned.
T. Murugesan, Tiruchi district secretary of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), had filed the case.
The students had to undergo the ordeal of appearing for re-examination on April 22, 2010, due to the negligence of the officials, he said.
He also claimed that parents of the affected students feared that they might be victimised if they engaged in a legal battle with the education department.
Counsel U. Nirmala Rani, appearing for the petitioner, brought to the notice of the Division Bench led by Mr. Justice Sudhakar to an interim order passed by another Bench led by Justice F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla (now a judge of the Supreme Court) in the case on April 16, 2010, assuring the students that they need not apprehend any kind of victimisation since the High Court was seized of the main case.
Since then nothing much transpired in the case until Mr. Justice Sudhakar decided to take it up for final disposal and directed the CEO to apprise the court of the developments that had taken place on the issue since 2010.
