The Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) had often been in headlines for their continuous mismanagement. Once again, caught in yet another major goof up, the Patna High Court slams a fine of Rs. 1 lakh on Bihar Board for inaccurately failing a Class 12 Intermediate candidate last year. According to media reports, the victim, identified as Saurabh Kumar has scored 32 out of 50 marks in Alternative English in 2017 board exam. After requesting for a re-evaluation, his marks in the paper was reduced to only two.

Saurabh is a resident of Sitalpur village under the Dighwara police station area in Saran district was represented in the court by counsels Sanjeev Kumar and Ajay Kumar Singh. During the hearing in High Court, the Bihar Board confessed that the student had failed due to a ‘clerical error.’ The bench of Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh was visibly furious over such negligible behaviour of BSEB and slapped a fine of Rs. 1 lakh on August 2. Saurabh’s one precious year was wasted. With a failed mark, he could not take admission in any educational institution.

After the announcement of the class 12 board exam results on May 30 last year, the student was very disappointed with the poor marks he had scored in Alternative English, Non-Rashtrabhasha and English papers. Saurabh got first division marks in the Intermediate exam with 32 marks in Alternative English. Sadly, after scrutiny, he was given only two marks and declared fail. After repeatedly requesting the BSEB officials for providing him with the attested copy of the answer sheet of the subject through RTI in which he failed, Saurabh finally approached the Patna High Court in March 2018 for relief.

The court had imposed the cost of Rs. 1 lakh on Bihar Board not only because of the clerical error, but also the loss of an academic year and harassment caused to him. The said amount will be handed over to the student.

However, as BSEB is infamous for, last year on October 18, the same bench addressed a similar issue. A candidate named Priyanka Singh was wrongly failed in class X examination due to BSEB’s complete mismanagement. She was given 9 out of 100 in Sanskrit and 29 out of 80 in Science. After the court’s order, BSEB re-evaluated her answer sheets after which she scored 80 in Sanskrit and 61 in Science. Bihar Board was then directed to pay Rs. 5 lakhs for such erroneous behaviour.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 03, 2018 09:12 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).