Gujarat HC appoints panel to probe PIL on Std 12 maths paper

A bench of the Gujarat high court will appoint an expert committee to resolve the issue of erroneous questions of 12 marks in maths paper of the science stream of class XII examination that was held on March 12 by Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB).

The issue had come on fore when one Dhiru Patel, a maths teacher, has filed public interest litigation (PIL) before the high court raising the issue of mistakes in setting maths question paper for the board exam.

"We filed the petition as questions worth 12 marks were incorrect and the paper setter did not follow the guidelines for setting questions. Questions worth 44 marks made the paper lengthy," said Digant Popat, counsel for Patel.

He said, "The court prima facie found substance in our petition. The court will hear the matter on Friday for appointment of the committee which will decide the issue."

The PIL, which was heard before the acting chief justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and justice JB Pardiwala states, "More than 1 lakh students from all over state appeared in the exam. The question paper contained apparent mistakes and questions worth 12 marks, including no 9, 10, 17, 21, 33, 34 and 51 were incorrect".

The petition further states, "The paper also violated the guidelines for setting up examination papers. Also, questions worth 44 marks were not as per the instructions in the guidelines. Question no 52 was copied and picked up from paper of the All India Engineering Entrance Exam."

It also said, "Question in section C, which should have carried a problem that could be solved in four steps required 9 to 10 steps. Such errors resulted in the paper getting lenghty." The petition also annexed the newspaper report of an HSC student who committed suicide as her paper did not go well.