The state secondary education board will have to announce Madhyamik review results by August 31, the high court has ruled. The board has never had any deadline for the publication of review results.

The order followed a petition by three students of Nabadwip Girls High School, in Nadia, who had “failed” in Madhyamik 2007.

Nandita Dutta and two others applied for a review of the answer scripts of the subjects in which they had failed. Following the review, the results of which were declared in September, the students passed in all the subjects.

The trio then took admission in Class XI but the state council for Higher Secondary education refused to register them. The council cited rules saying that only those whose admission formalities were over by August 31 could be registered. Without a registration number, a student cannot sit for the Higher Secondary exams.

Following the students’ petition, Justice Maharaja Sinha on Tuesday ordered the council to register the students as a “special case” and asked the Madhyamik board to declare the review results by August 31.

A section of lawyers, however, wondered how the ruling would help avoid similar problems as there is no window between the board’s deadline and that of the council.

The ruling came at a time when an increasing number of Madhyamik students are expressing displeasure over the method of the publication of results.

The students are complaining that they are being inconvenienced by the “massive delay” in the publication of both general and review results. Many Madhyamik students who are promoted after a review cannot take admission in Class XI because of the delay in the distribution of revised marksheets.