BSE pays Rs 3 lakh to student for faulty evaluation

Orissa High Court has directed Board of Secondary Education (BSE) to pay a compensation of Rs three lakh to a student, who was initially declared fail in this year's matriculation examination but after getting his answer sheets rechecked passed in first division.

As the student hailing from Bhadrak district lost an academic year to pursue higher education, High Court asked the Board to compensate him.

Suman Panigrahy of Basudevpur Panchayat High School was appalled to notice that he had obtained only six marks out of 100 in Mathematics paper, while he scored well in all the remaining papers.

He approached the Board for rechecking his answer sheet and moved the High Court to direct the Board to expedite his case, so that he could pursue higher education without a gap year.

Accordingly, the HC asked the Board to do the needful.

However, by the time a new mark sheet was issued to him, rectifying his marks to 89 out of 100 in Mathematics, Suman could not apply for higher education as the last date for application had already expired.

Finding no other alternative, Suman again approached the HC seeking a compensation of Rs five lakh from the Board.

Allowing his plea, a single-judge bench of Justice B N Mohapatra yesterday awarded a compensation of Rs 3 lakh and suggested the Board that it could collect the damage amount from the employees who were responsible for such a goof up.

PTI