BHUBANESWAR: As many as 541 students who had appeared the CBSE Class XII examinations this year from Bhubaneswar Region on Monday moved the Orissa High Court seeking re-evaluation of their answer papers.
Alleging discrepancies in the marking system which led to below par scores, the students and their parents filed writ petitions in the HC for re-evaluation of the papers.
This is the third time students have knocked the doors of the HC. In the first phase, 18 students had filed petitions while 159 students moved the court in the second. The aggrieved students from different parts of Odisha, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh accompanied with their parents have been camping in the City for the last two weeks with a hope of getting additional marks through re-evaluation.
While the results of the first batch of 18 students have been published after re-evaluation in accordance with the HC orders, the second batch is awaiting their scores. Odisha Abhibhabaka Mahasangha, the forum which has led the protest against CBSE alleging irregularities in marking system, has expressed dissatisfaction with the manner in which re-evaluation was carried out and the final scores were declared.
The forum, led by its president Sudarsan Das, has sought an appointment with Union HRD Minister Prakash Javdekar to apprise him of the ordeal of the affected students. ‘’Before applying for re-evaluation, a candidate has to sign an undertaking declaring that he would not disclose the final results to anyone in person or agency. Besides, he cannot even challenge the re-evaluated marks in the court of law. Such a declaration is draconian. We will put forth this issue before the Minister,’’ Das said.
On Monday, the forum also wrote to Odisha State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (OSCPCR) challenging the explanation submitted by CBSE to the Commission’s notice. On June 12, OSCPCR Chairperson Kasturi Mohapatra had served a notice on the CBSE on grounds of harassment of children and violation of child rights.