HYDERABAD: Justice Mummineni Sudheer Kumar of the Telangana High Court on Thursday overturned the decision by the Hanamkonda District Educational Officer (DEO) and directed the authorities to promptly declare the results of the SSC examinations taken by Dandaboina Harish and to follow all further procedures in accordance with the law.
Harish had moved court after the DEO debarred him from the exam based on a report from the Warangal police commissioner dated April 4, 2023.
According to the DEO, an outsider named Shivaji allegedly entered the examination centre at around 9:45 a.m. and captured images of the Hindi question paper that Harish was answering. These images were shared on various WhatsApp groups by around 9:59 a.m. Based on these allegations and reports, the DEO issued the order, concluding that Harish had facilitated malpractice.
During the hearing, senior counsel representing Harish informed the court that a review of the impugned order revealed no indication of any prior inquiry conducted by the DEO before issuing the order. Further, no notice was issued to Harish at any point before debarring him from appearing in two subsequent examinations and cancelling the ones he had already taken.
The court also examined the remand case diary submitted by the respondents along with their counter affidavit. This diary revealed that the allegations against Harish pertained to an individual named Shivaji, who had trespassed into the ZP High School for Boys, Kamalapur, and taken photographs of the question paper from Harish at 9:45 a.m. Notably, the remand case diary did not indicate that Harish had played any role in this incident or that he was named as an accused in the police investigation.