"Duty Of Student To Be Vigilant": Punjab & Haryana High Court Dismisses CBSE Student's Plea To Apply For Improvement Exam After Last Date

The Punjab & Haryana High Court has dismissed a plea to allow a student to fill out the application form for CBSE  Class XII, Improvement Exam after the prescribed stipulated time had elapsed.

Justice Vikas Bahl said, "Once public notices are given, then, it is the duty of the students to be vigilant, more so, when the petitioner wanted to appear in the improvement examinations."

The Court further added that the petitioner had not been able to show any legal right in his favour or any legal duty on the part of respondent authorities to accept the application of the petitioner despite the last extended date having passed.

These observations came in response to a plea for quashing an order passed by the CBSE, by which the request of the petitioner to permit him to apply for the Improvement Examination 2023-2024 of Class 12 after the last daye of application, had been rejected.

Perusing the Board's order the Court noted that, "the request made by the petitioner for permitting him to apply for Improvement Examination 2023-2024 of Class 10+2 as a private candidate has been rejected by the competent officer since the petitioner did not fill up the form within the stipulated time or even up to the extended time."

Counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner is ready to pay late fees in case he is permitted to fill up the form after the last date.

On the other hand, the counsel appearing for the respondent stated that once the extended last date has already passed, it was not possible for the respondent-Board to entertain any further applications as the acceptance of one application, would open Pandora's box, inasmuch as, several other applications which have been made after the extended date are pending and the same would lead to multiplicity of litigation.

Considering the submissions, the Court observed that, granting indulgence to one such case would lead to multiplicity of litigation and also a situation where the entire process of holding examinations which would include the sitting arrangements etc. would have to be redone and the same would cause prejudice to the students who have already applied within time.

Stating that the petitioner had failed to show any legal right in his favour or any legal duty on the part of respondent authorities to accept the application despite the last extended date having passed, the Court dismissed the plea.

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (PH) 22

Title: Vansh Sangwan v. Central Board of School Education and others

Sumit Sangwan, Advocate, for the petitioner.

 Kannan Malik, Advocate, for the respondent.