Rajasthan High Court Fines School ₹1 Lakh For Sending Incorrect Exam Form To CBSE, Issuing Erroneous Transfer Certificate To Student

The Rajasthan High Court imposed a cost of Rs. 1 Lakh on a school that sent an erroneously filled examination form of a student to the CBSE for compartment examination, and also issued an incorrect “Transfer Certificate” based on which the petitioner completed his graduation.

The high court imposed the cost on the school to be paid in one month to the petitioner noting he was "harassed unnecessarily". The court further said that sending an incorrect examination form of the petitioner to the Board and issuing him an erroneous Transfer Certificate showing him as “XII Passed” indicates gross negligence on the part of the School.

Justice Anoop Kumar Dhand held that if any fault was committed by the school authorities, the petitioner student could not be made to suffer in a way that jeopardized his entire future and career.

The court noted that the examination form annexed with the writ petition bears only the signatures of the petitioner, however, the description of the subjects and subject codes have not been filled in the petitioner's handwriting.

"It appears that the school Authorities themselves filled out the examination form of the petitioner, mentioning all the five subjects. It further appears that when the admit card was issued, it was revealed to the petitioner that he was supposed to appear again for all the four subjects, which he had already passed. It is the contention of the petitioner that he was given assurance by the school authorities that the needful will be done on their part and acting upon such assurance, the petitioner appeared only for one examination, i.e., Chemistry in his compartment examination. It appears that the school forwarded the petitioner's theory marks to the respondent-CBSE without consent of the petitioner," it added. 

The court observed that it was "quite shocking on the part of the school authorities" that the examination form of a passed candidate was forwarded, for appearance in all those subjects which the petitioner had already passed.

"This Court finds that the respondent No. 3, i.e., the School is guilty of not only sending an incorrect examination form of the petitioner to the respondent-CBSE, marking the petitioner's passed subjects for reappearance, but also guilty of issuing an incorrect and erroneous Transfer Certificate to the petitioner by showing him as “XII Passed” in the same. Since the respondentCBSE treated the petitioner as absent in the four subjects and declared him “Fail” in the subsequent examinations, the School has no reason or occasion to issue a Transfer Certificate showing the petitioner as “XII Passed”.

“For causing harassment and mental agony to the petitioner by creating an obstacle in his future educational pursuits, the respondent-School is liable to compensate him adequately for its blatant negligence. If any fault has been committed by the school authorities, the petitioner cannot be made to suffer for the same,” the bench added.

The petitioner appeared in the All India Senior School Certificate Examination in 2012 in which he passed all other subjects except for Chemistry. He appeared in the supplementary examination, but failed in that too.

He intended to appear for compartment examination for Chemistry, however while sending his compartment examination form to CBSE, the school committed an error and instead of filling only chemistry in the form, all 5 subjects were filled.

The petitioner got to know about this when the admit card was issued that reflected all five subjects. When he approached the school, the school assured him of amending their error and asked him to appear only for the Chemistry exam.

Based on this assurance, the student appeared only in Chemistry, passed that exam, and was issued “Transfer Certificate” by the school indicating “XII Passed”. Based on this transfer certificate, he took admission for graduation in B.Tech, and completed the same. Thereafter, for taking admission in M.Tech, he was asked to submit his class XII marksheet.

When he approached the school for the marksheet, he found out that the marksheet reflected him as passed only in Chemistry while in all other 4 subjects, he was marked as “Absent”, and thus declared Fail in the revised mark sheet.

In this background the Court held that since the petitioner had already completed graduation, by committing this negligent act the school tried to jeopardize his future and to cause loss of three valuable years not only to him but to his parents as well who had incurred huge expenses on his studies.

The Court observed that not only the petitioner suffered, but even CBSE was dragged into the litigation without any fault on their part.

In this light, the petition was allowed, and CBSE was directed to issue a fresh mark sheet to the petitioner within one month. 

Title: Manish Saini v Central Board of Secondary Education & Ors.

Citation: 2025 LiveLaw (Raj) 264

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