THE BOARD OF HIGH SCHOOL & INTER MEDIATE EDUCATION U.P. versus BAGLESHWAR PRASAD & OTHERS

Citation: [1963] 3 S.C.R. 767 · Decided: 27-08-1962 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: P.B. GAJENDRAGADKAR · Disposal: Directions issued

Cited by 2 judgment(s) · see the full citation network in Lexace

Judgment (excerpt)

~ s.c.:tt. 
SUPREME CoURT REPORTS 
THE BOARD OF HIGH SCHOOL & INTER-
MEDIATE EDUCATION U. P. 
v. 
BAGLESHWAR PRASAD & OTHERS 
(P. B. GAJENDRAGADKAR, K. C. Das GUPTA, and 
RAGHUBAR DAYAL, JJ.) 
Domestic Tribunal-Educational body-DiBciplinary action 
-Interference by High Gourt-OonBtitution of India, Art.226. . 
The appellant Board cancelled the declaration of the 
result of the respondent in the High School . Certificate 
Examination held in 1960 accepting the findings of the sub-
committee appointed by it to enquire into the charges made 
against the respondent and another candidate of having used 
unfair means in answering the English, Mathematics and 
Hindi papers. The charges were based upon the fact that in 
the Hindi 3rd paper sot at the said examination, the respon· 
dent gave wrong answers to Question No. 4 in precisely the 
same form in which the answers had been given by the 
candidate whose Roll number was consecutive with that of 
the respondent. The High Court interpreting the charge as 
confined to that the respondent had copied either from the 
answer book of the candidate bearing the consecutive Roll 
Number or from a common source held that the findings of 
the enquiry committee were based on no evidence and quashed 
the cancellation of the result. On appeal by special leave. 
Held, that in the circumstances of the case, the identity 
of the wrong answers given by the respondent with that of 
the other candidate bearing the consecutive Roll Number 
rendered the charge of the respondent having employed 
unfair means highly probable and that the findings of the 
enquiry committee based upon such probabilities and circums-
tantial evidence could not be said to be based on no evidence 
as in such matters direct evidence quite often cannot be 
available. 
Held, futher, that in dealing with cases like those of 
..., educational institutions dealing with matters of discipline 
like employing unfair means, the problem faced by the 
educational institutions should be appreciated by the High 
Court and so long as the enquiry held is fair and affords the 
candidate an opportunity to defend himself, the matter should 
A"lust 27 
... 
\ 
1962 
/J1ard •J 
llith School k 
I rittrmediat1 
Etuc•tion U.P . 
•• 
Bsgleahwar P1a1ad 
768 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS (1963J 
not be examined with the same strictness as applicable to 
criminal trials in the ordinary courts of law. 
· 
C:rv1L APPELLATE JuRISDICTION: Civil Appeal 
No. 328 of 1962 .. 
Appeal by special leave from the judgment 
and order dated September 4, 1961, of the Allahabad 
High Court in Civil Misc. writ No. 3469 of 1960. 
K. L. Misra, Advocate-General for the State of 
U. P., 0. B. Agarwala, K. 8. Hajela and 0. P. Lal, 
for the appellants. 
8. P: Sinha and M. I. Klwwaja, for respondent 
No. 1. 
~ 
1962. August 27. The Judgement of the Court 
was delivered by 
GoJ•ndragadka• J. 
GAJENDRAGADKAR, J.-This appeal by special 
leave arises out of a Writ Petition filed by the 
respondent Bagleshwar Prasad against the Board 
of High School and Intermediate Education, U. P., 
.~ 
Allahabad, and its Secretary, appellants 1 & 2, and· 
another. By his petition, tp.e respondent challen-
ged the validity of the order passed by appellant 
No. 1 on December 5, 1960, cancelling the respon-
dent's result at the High School Exmination held 
in 1960. It appears that the respondent appeared 
for tho said examination from the Nehru Inter-
mediate College Centre, Bindki. He was declared '<:"' 
to have passed the said examination in the II Divi-
sion with distinction in Art. Thereafter, he joined 
Intermediate first year class in the Kulbaskar 
Ashram Agriculture College at Allahabad. On the 
3rd September, 1960, he received a letter from 
the Principal, Adarsh Higher Seconda.ry School, 
Kora Jahanabad, from where he had appeared for.,. 
the High School examination, calling upon him to 
appear before a :Sub-Committee to answer the 
charge of having used unfair means in English, 
f.. 
... 
3 S.C.R. 
SUPREME COURT REPORTS 
769 
Mathematics and Hindi papers. Accordingly, he 
appeared before the said Sub-Committee. A charge 
was given to him and his explanation was obtained 
on the said charge. This che.rge was based on the 
fact that in Hindi 3rd paper set at the said ex'l.mi-
nation, the respondent had given wrong answers to 
Question No. 4 in precisely the same f•>rm in which 
the said answers had been given by a candidate 
whose Roll No. was 9!733. The respondent's Roll 
No. was 91734. 

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