Supreme Court

Patna, Aug. 10: The decision of the Supreme Court to uphold the judgment of Calcutta High Court that “rejection for inspection of answer sheets cannot be sustained” has been welcomed with smiles across the state.

According to the judgment, the CBSE, all state boards, Bihar Public State Commission and others are supposed to produce the photocopies of the answer sheets to all those who wish to see them. The apex court has ensured the right of the examinees to inspect answer sheets under the transparency law. The evaluated answer sheets are covered under the definition of “information” under the Right to Information Act, a bench comprising Justice R.V. Raveendran and Justice A.K. Patnaik had said.

Kumar Divyam, who had taken the Class XII CBSE examination this year, is quite content with the judgment of the court. Divyam had scored 6 in economics. In accountancy, he had scored 20 in practical and five in theory.

Divyam was sure he would have scored much more had the copies been evaluated correctly. He even sat on a hunger strike on June 13 with other students demanding that the CBSE regional office sends their answer sheets to Delhi for rechecking. “I am happy with the judgment. It seems I will get justice now,” he said.

Nishant Kumar, who had also taken the Class XII examination this year, is of the same opinion as Divyam. Nishant had secured “unexpectedly” low marks in accountancy, business studies and economics. He, too, went on hunger strike. A visibly happy Nishant said: “I feel my marks will improve and other students will get justice.”

Amar Jaiswal, whose child studies in a city school, said: “This is a great decision of the Supreme Court. When my child will appear for such examinations, the transparency system to see copies would be in place. The judgment should be welcomed by all.”

But K.K. Jain, the deputy secretary of the CBSE regional office, said: “At present, the judgment has been delivered by a single bench. The board is planning to go further so that a division bench hears the case. As of now, we are following the instructions given to us by the CBSE.”

Besides the CBSE students, examinees of other boards hailed the decision of the apex court. Amit Kumar, a matriculation examinee who has applied for paper scrutiny, said: “I am thankful to Supreme Court for a verdict that will benefit students like us. We can now see our answer sheets if we are not satisfied with the marks given. After all, career is all that matters.”