NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court recently disapproved the practice of HC calling for answer scripts and directing for revaluation in the absence of a specific provision.
A bench Justices MR Shah and MM Sundresh in their order said, "We are of the opinion that the High Court was not at all justified in calling the record of the answer scripts and then to satisfy whether there was a need for re-evaluation or not. As reported, the High Courts are calling for the answer scripts/sheets for satisfying whether there is a need for re-evaluation or not and thereafter orders/directs re-evaluation, which is wholly impermissible."
The court further said, "Such a practice of calling for answer scripts/answer sheets and thereafter to order re-evaluation and that too in absence of any specific provision in the relevant rules for re-evaluation and that too while exercising powers under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is disapproved."
Court’s observation came in a plea which was filed by Dr NTR University of Health Sciences against Andhra Pradesh HC’s order asking the university to reevaluate the answer scripts of the students who appeared in the PG diploma course.
A University’s counsel contended that HC’s order was not justified since there wasn’t any provision for re-evaluation and it was not justified for the court to direct the university under Article 226.
Informing the bench of the new mode adopted by the university for introducing digital evaluation for answer scripts of PG Degree/Diploma Examinations, the counsel further argued that the answers were evaluated digitally for every exam and there was no manual evaluation pursuant to resolution for digital evaluation.