- (1.) Heard Shri Mohd. Ateeq Khan, learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Standing Counsel appearing on behalf of the State respondents.
(2.) The petitioner appeared in the Intermediate Examination, 2019 conducted by the Board of High School and Intermediate, Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad (for short 'the Board') as a regular student from S.S. Bhupati Singh Memorial Inter College, Alambagh, Lucknow (for short 'the College'). He passed the said examination in first division. However, the petitioner, alongwith two other students, filed a writ petition bearing Misc. Single No. 14803 of 2019 before this Court praying for re-evaluation of his answer-books pertaining to Mathematics and English question papers. In the absence of any provision for re-evaluation in the Board Examination, the prayer made by the petitioner for re-evaluation of his answer-books was rejected by a learned Single Judge of this Court by an order dated 24.05.2019. The learned Single Judge, however, granted liberty to the petitioner to invoke the provisions of Right to Information Act for getting copies of the answer-books in order to enable the petitioner to know the pattern of marking. The operative portion of the order dated 24.05.2019 is extracted below: "Learned counsel for the petitioners also could not bring to the notice of the Court any statutory or otherwise provision contained in any circular/executive order/rules/regulations or any enactment which permits re-evaluation of answer books. In the aforesaid view of the matter, the prayers made in this petition as such cannot be granted. At this juncture, learned counsel for the petitioners has prayed that the petitioners may be permitted to invoke the provisions of Right to Information Act for getting true/photostat copies of their answer books so that they can know the pattern of marking. Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of CBSE vs. Aditya Bandopadhyay and others, reported in [(2011) 8 SCC 497] has held that under Right to Information Act if demanded, the answer books are to be permitted to be shown/copies thereof given to the candidates by the bodies conducting public examination. In view of the aforesaid judgment, the petitioners are permitted to move appropriate application under the Right to Information Act for being provided with photostat/true copies of their answer books and in case any such application is made, the same shall be dealt with in accordance with law and the provisions contained in Right to Information Act by the Public Information Officer within the time stipulated for the said purpose under the Right to Information Act. On receipt of the photostat/true copies of the answer books if any grievance to the petitioners still subsist, it will be open to them to take recourse to the legal remedy which may be available to them under law for redressal of their grievances, if any. With the aforesaid observations and directions, the writ petition stands disposed of."
(3.) After obtaining copies of his answer-books of Mathematics and English papers, the petitioner, alongwith two other students, filed another writ petition bearing Misc. Single No. 30776 of 2019, Shivam Tiwari and others v. State of U.P. and others before this Court. On an objection being raised by the learned Standing Counsel with regard to mis-joinder of cause of action, this Court permitted the petitioner to withdraw his name from the said writ petition with liberty to him to file a fresh petition.;