- (1.) Since all these writ Petitions involve same question of law, we propose to dispose of these writ Petitions by this common judgment.
(2.) Sanjay Srivastava and 31 others have filed Writ Petition No. 7396 of 1986 Under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying for quashing the decision of the opposite party No. 1 Madhyamik Shiksha Praishad, U.P. Allahabad dated 7-10-86 contained in Annexure-18 to the writ petition cancelling their results of the High School Examination of the year 1986. The facts briefly stated by the Petitioner are that they were regular students of the High School and appeared as such from Government Inter College, Rae Bareli and their examination centre was Mahatma Gandhi Inter College, Rae Bareli. The result of the examination was published in 'Swatantra Bharat' Lucknow daily on 30-6-86 and in this the result of the Petitioners as also about 202 other students who appeared at the said examination from the same centre was withheld on the ground that they had allegedly done mass copying and had adopted unfair means at the examination. Further it is stated that the Petitioners were called upon to appear at the centre on a particular date to show cause before the enquiry committee as to why their cases be not recommended for cancellation of their results. Provisional mark sheets were, however, in the meantime issued to some of the Petitioners which have been brought on record of the writ petition as annexures 2 to 17. It is not necessary for us to point out so to what marks and divisions were obtained by the Petitioners, as indicated by the said provisional mark sheets. It will, however, be pertinent to point out that subsequent to the enquiry the result of all the Petitioners were cancelled for the year 1986 by the impugned order of the opposite party No. 1. The Petitioners have indicated that their results were cancelled on the ground that the Petitioners had used unfair means in Chemistry Paper II, Questions 4 (Kha) and 4 (gha) inasmuch as they had indicated answers correctly while the steps as worked out by them were not complete and correct and that the rough calculation made by them were also not complete and in circumstances they could not support the answers indicated by them. The students, however, replied on the spot on being served the questionnaire and some of them replied that they had" worked out the question properly while the others indicated that they had studied those questions and as a matter of fact prepared and can answer those questions as well as such other questions by heart and can tell it outright without detailed calculations being made in reply to the questions. While cancelling the result of the Petitioners, opposite party No. 1 Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad, on the other hands, is said to have allowed certain representations made for reconsideration by Petitioners 7, 11, 22 and 25 and while allowing the representations declared them successful in the High School Examination of 1986 in which all the Petitioners had been declared to have failed on account of use of unfair means. The orders allowing the representations of the said Petitioners as also many other candidates similarly charged of using unfair means have been brought on record as Annexures R-l, R-2 and R-3 of the rejoinder affidavit of the Petitioners dated November 10, 1987.
(3.) In Writ Petition No. 7397 of 1986 filed by Ajai Trivedi and 8 others, Petitioners 1 to 6 and 8 were charged of using unfair means in Chemistry II paper Question 4 (kha) and 4 (gha) while Petitioners 7 and 9 were charged of using unfair means in Mathematics I paper Question No. 4 (Kha).;