H.R.KRISHNAN, J. - (1.)THIS is an application under Article 226 of the Constitution for issue of an appropriate writ or order of Mandamus or direction on the Respondent No. 2 to admit the Petitioner to its Intermediate Examination in Arts, which it is alleged it has wrongfully refused.
(2.)THE Petitioner passed the Matriculation examination held by the Board of Examinations, Nagpur, in 1956. He was admitted in the Victoria College, Gwalior, and later on to the Bikarama Ditya Intermediate College, Rajgarh, in the Intermediate classes where he has studied for two years. When, however, he applied, along with the other scholars for admission to the Intermediate Arts examination held by the Board of Secondary Education, Madhya Bharat region, M.P., it was refused, because under Regulation 2 in Chapter XVII of the Board's Regulations, the Matriculation Examination of the Nagpur Board is not one of those declared equivalent to this Board's High School Examination. No doubt, the time for the Intermediate Arts Examinations, 1958, is over, but there are supplementary examinations in the near future, as well as the examination of 1959.
However hard it be on the Petitioner to be informed at the last moment that he cannot take the examination for which he has been preparing for two years, this Court can interfere only, in certain circumstances; firstly, the law or Regulation or rule applied to his case is ultra vires of the Constitution; or secondly, that under them he is really entitled to appear, but is kept back by a misapplication or misconstruction of the relevant provision. Obviously, the application is not on the first ground; but as will presently appear it is apparently on the second. The Respondent No. 2, the Board of Secondary Education M.B. region has been constituted by the Madhya Bharat Secondary Education Act (51 of 1950). It is empowered to hold a number of examinations but we are concerned only with the Intermediate Examination in Arts. Under its Regulations which are equivalent to law, being made under Section 17 of the Act, no student can be allowed to sit for the Intermediate Arts Examination unless he has passed the Board's own High School Examination, or an examination which by the Regulations has been declared equivalent to it. Regulation 2 in Chapter XVII has a long list of as many as 31 headings of examination held declared to be equivalent to the Board's High School examination but the Matriculation Examination held by the Nagpur Board is not one of them. This in fact is admitted, by the applicant. Still he urges that having been admitted in the colleges within the Board's jurisdiction, and having undergone the prescribed course of study satisfactorily, he is now entitled to take the examination.

(3.)HE has no doubt been seriously inconvenienced by an oversight on his own part and on the part of college authorities committed with the best of intention. It appears that the Nagpur Board used to hold examinations at different places outside its jurisdiction, including Indore. The applicant took the said examination at Indore, at a time when it was perfectly easy for him to have taken the Madhya Bharat High School Examination there. Afterwards, he came with his father on transfer to Gwalior, and was admitted in the Intermediate Arts (1st year) in a college here. Now the proviso to rule No. 2, section C made under Regulation 2, Chapter XX of the Regulations, contains a caution that no scholar should be allowed to migrate from any school or college outside the jurisdiction of the Board preparing candidates for an examination, until at the time of his admission to the college he was eligible for admission to the Intermediate Classes of a college in the Board's jurisdiction under Regulation 2, Chapter XVII of the Regulation. Whether there is such a proviso or not, it was only common prudence that the scholar and the college should have satisfied themselves that if admitted he would be able to sit for the Intermediate examination after undergoing the prescribed course of study. In the present case they seem to have assumed that he would be able to do so, a perfectly understandable position, but wrong in view of the omission of the Nagpur Board's examination from the list of equivalent examinations in Regulation 2, Chapter XVII. The applicant transferred himself to another college at Rajgarh as his father was transferred to that district and satisfied the college authorities that he had attained that amount of proficiency in his subject as would enable him to sit for the Board's Intermediate Arts examination; but he still lacked the qualification required by Regulation 1 in Chapter XVII. When this was detected the Board found themselves unable to permit him to take that examination, unless and until the Regulation 2 in that Chapter is amended by the addition of the Nagpur Board, the Madhya Bharat Board cannot do so.' Thus, there is no prima facie ground in this application; it is dismissed summarily.