- (1.) THE petitioner Kusum Kumari was a student of Class X of Ganga Ram Bajaj Manila Intermediate College, Auraiya, Etawah. She had appeared in the High School Examinations held in 1972. The result of the examination was published on June 27, 1972. The petitioner's result was withheld and she was informed that she had been debarred from appearing in the ex aminations to be held in the year 1973, on the ground that she had used unfair means in answering first question of English second paper.
(2.) IT appears that a complaint was re ceived in the office of the first respondent, the Board of High School and Intermediate Education, U. P. Allahabad (hereinafter re ferred to as the 'Board') to the effect that the candidates appearing from Ganga Ram Bajaj Mahila Intermediate College, Auraiya Etawah had been using unfair means in the examina tions. Accordingly, the examiners concern ed were alerted to scrutinise the answer books and to report the suspected cases. The answer book of English second paper of the petitioner as well as of certain other can didates were placed before the Screening Committee appointed by the Examination Committee. The Screening Committee after examining the answer books reported that 46 candidates appeared to have used unfair means in answering question No. 1 of English second paper. A Sub-Enquiry Committee was constituted to make a spot enquiry and to submit its report to the Examination Com mittee. It was thereafter that it was decid ed to withhold the petitioner's result and also to debar her from appearing in the next examination. The evidence found against the petitioner as a result of the enquiry was that the petitioner's answer and the answer of two other candidates bore unusual similarity. There were some common spelling mistakes and mistakes of deciphering nature, for ex ample, the petitioner had written 'brobe' for 'very' and 'money' for 'many', 'beround' for 'proud' etc. The allegation is that she had used unfair means in answering question No. 1 of the English Second paper. That question was a piece of translation from Hindi to English.
(3.) NOW , the precise nature of the unfair means has not been specified. The obvious unfair means would be to copy the answer from the answer books of candidates sitting around the petitioner. The other two candi dates whose answers are alleged to bear close similarity to the answer given by the peti tioner were admittedly sitting in different rooms. Therefore, the petitioner could not possibly have copied out her answer from their answer books.;