- (1.) The Rule was issued at the instance of some students of Shibnath High School, Khardha, for quashing certain decision refusing permission to them to appear at the annual High Secondary Examination and also for a direction upon the Board of Secondary Education to allow the petitioners to appear at such examination. The facts in a short compass are set out below. The petitioners, majority of whom are described as minors, are all students of the abovementioned School which is a Government aided Higher Secondary School. They were candidates for Higher Secondary Examination, 1968, (hereinafter referred to as the Examination) which was to be held by the respondent No.1 on and from 28.3.68. Under order of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education (hereinafter referred to as the Board) Headmaster of each of the school under the Board was directed to send up their respective candidates for the Examination without holding any test. Accordingly, the headmaster of this school sent up 120 regular candidates including the petitioners for appearing at the Examination. The petitioners were supplied by the Headmaster with the prescribed forms issued by the Board. The petitioners filled up these forms and deposited the requisite fees but they were told between 16th and 18th March that their respective admission cards were not then sent by the respondent No.1 to the Headmaster who asked them again to see him on 25.3.68. On this date, the petitioners came to know from the Notice Board of the School and also from enquiries in the office of the School that the respondent No.1 could not be satisfied about the eligibility of the petitioners to appear at the examination as it was alleged that in some cases names of certain candidates were not found in the Register or in the promotion register while in some others there was no indication of payment of tuition fees and the forms were not duly filled up. the Board, however, gave notice to the Headmaster to explain and although the Headmaster gave such explanation, the Board did not grant any permission to the petitioners.
(2.) On the very same date, that is, on the 25th March, 1968, some of the petitioners and their guardians themselves met the Deputy Secretary of the Board who pleaded his inability to do anything and some of the guardians met the respondent No.4 but without any effect. On the same date at about 3 P.M. one Gobinda Prasad Goenka and Sudhansu Kumar Roy Choudhury as representatives of the petitioners called at the office of the Board and met the President requesting him to re-consider the decision. The President, however, equally pleaded his inability to re-consider the matter and told them that unless there was any direction or order from this Court allowing these petitioners to sit at the examination, he had nothing to do in the matter. That is how the petitioners felt aggrieved and came up to this Court and obtained the present rule. An interim order was also given directing the respondents to allow the petitioners to sit for the Higher Secondary Examination inter alia by issuing admit cards but the publication of results was stayed till the disposal of the Rule.
(3.) Upon these facts several grounds were taken but Mr. Ranadeb Chaudhuri, learned Counsel for the petitioners at the hearing raised only two points. First is that orders or directions refusing to grant permission to these petitioners to sit at the examination was wholly unauthorized, illegal and without jurisdiction as they were not made by the Board but by the Examination Committee. Second is that even assuming that the Examination Committee had any such power, such orders or directions were still bad in law as they were made without giving any opportunity to the petitioners to make representation or of any hearing.;