HC rejects plea of SoBo student; says Board doesn't have provision to extend facility to him
The Bombay high court on Wednesday refused to allow a student, who is a slow learner, take the help of a writer during the ongoing Higher Secondary Examinations (HSC).
A division bench of Justices V A Naik and C V Bhadang rejected a petition filed by Ashish Shetty (name changed) on the grounds that the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education didn't have any provision to extend the facility to a slow learner, as well as the opinion of an expert.
The bench observed: "Merely because the petitioner was allowed to take the help of a writer in the Grade X exam conducted by National Institute of Open Schooling cannot be said that the State Board is obliged to grant the same facility in HSC."
Shetty, now a student of a south Mumbai college, had taken the assistance of a writer during his Grade Xth examinations as per rules of the open school. He had approached the HC after the Board declined to accede to his request. In a communication to Shetty, the board, however, said that he could be granted some extra time.
The HC took into consideration a notification issued by the Board stating that the writer facility was allowed only to students who were deaf/dumb or blind or physically handicapped or spastic. Since Shetty didn't fit into into any of these categories, as a slow learner, he could be only granted 20 minutes extra, per hour, for all papers, said the Board.
As they dismissed the boy's petition, the judges also took into account a certificate by an expert from the department of paediatrics, KEM hospital. The expert had opined that the teenager was a slow learner and did not suffer from dysgraphia – learning disability that affects writing abilities.
Advocate Ameya Gokhale, who represented the student, said, "We would study the order passed by the court and then decide on whether to challenge it or not in the apex court."
The petition was specially assigned to a bench on February 21 which, by way of interim relief, directed the Board to provide a writer but had kept the matter for final hearing on Wednesday.
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