The Supreme Court has recently sought responses from Karnataka government and officials of the State examination department on a plea seeking to increase marks from 97.83% to 99% obtained in the 12th board exams.
A bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice Aravind Kumar was hearing a plea filed by Khalone Devaiah, an 18 year old boy from Karnataka challenging the state High Court order that dismissed contempt proceedings against concerned officials after the court had previously ordered a re-evaluation.
In his Pre-University (PU) exams in 2022, the student received the following grades: English: 90/100, Kannada: 98/100, Biology: 99/100, and full marks in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics.
He calculated that he would gain the lost mark in Biology and 5.5 marks in English after gaining access to copies of the evaluated answer sheets. When he applied for re-evaluation, the PU Education Board of the State initially said there was no case for a change in his marks.
He wrote to them again, this time with a more detailed representation.
Following that, the boy was informed that no change of marks could be made because he had already applied for re-evaluation once, and because a difference of 6 marks was required for a change to be reflected in the grade sheets afresh.
Dissatisfied with this decision, he moved the High Court, which directed the board to consider his representation while leaving the legal question open.
Following a delay on the part of the authorities, the student filed an application. The High Court then ordered the submission of a status report. He filed a contempt plea after the same was not done and the respondents refused to change his marks.
The High Court dismissed the case, noting that there was no legal provision to indicate revised marks as a supplement to the existing grade sheet, prompting the current Supreme Court appeal.
