While observing that it did not see rationale why students who did not opt for Science subject in Class 10 cannot be admitted to the stream later, the Bombay High Court has asked the MSBSHSE to release the Class 12 marksheet of a 17-year-old boy it had disbarred
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While observing that it did not see rationale why students who did not opt for Science subject in Class 10 cannot be admitted to the stream later, the Bombay High Court has asked the MSBSHSE to release the Class 12 marksheet of a 17-year-old boy it had disbarred.
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The Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) had cancelled the boy's admission to Classes 11 and 12 after he appeared for the HSC examination, claiming that he was ineligible to be admitted to the Science stream, as he had not opted for the subject in Class 10, PTI reported.
A division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Neela Gokhale in its order of June 7 said it sees no rationale why Class 10 students who don't opt for Science subject should not be admitted to the stream later.
The order was passed in the petition filed by Krish Chordiya challenging the state board's decision cancelling his admission and refusing to release his Class 12 marksheet.
“The choice of subjects at SSC and ICSE schools is not made in Class 10, but at least a year or two earlier, around Classes 8 or 9. It is surely unreasonable to expect that the decision of a 14-year-old will be determinative of his or her entire future,” the court said.
It further said that as per the National Education Policy (NEP), the entire pattern is proposed to be changed.
“The old trifecta of Science-Arts-Commerce is to be done away with and rightly so. The emphasis is now on identifying and nurturing potential and providing flexible learning options,” the court said.
If this was the policy trend, then the court was unable to see how the inflexibility and tardiness of the Maharashtra State Board's approach fulfils any objective at all, it added.
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“We are compelled to ask what the purpose of the 4th respondent (State Board) is: to assist students and provide and encourage education opportunities or to discover new ways to stymie them?” the court said.
Noting that if interim relief is granted to the petitioner, no prejudice would be caused to the board, the court directed for his Class 12 marksheet to be released pending final hearing and disposal of the petition.
The bench observed that Chordiya was caught between the "Scylla of an utterly doctrinaire approach of the state board and the Charybdis of an alleged lapse on the part of the Gargi Junior College, Nashik".
“The result is that the young petitioner's entire educational career and future is in jeopardy,” the court said.
According to the petition, Chordiya appeared for Class 10 standard exams in the ICSE board in 2020-21, after which he took admission to the Science stream at Gargi Junior College.
In 2023, the petitioner appeared for the Class 12 board examination. However, in March, he received a letter from the college stating that his admission to Classes 11 and 12 were cancelled by the board, as he had not opted for Science subject in Class 10.
Chordiya in his plea said he was not given a copy of the Board's order.
In the meantime, Chordiya appeared for the joint entrance exam of the Vellore Institute of Technology and based on that score, he was given a provisional admission letter.
When the HSC results were declared in May, Chordiya's marksheet was not uploaded and he was shown as disbarred.
The bench in its order noted that the state board and the college ought to have coordinated to ensure that Chordiya was informed that he was ineligible for whatever reason before being given admission.
The court noted that Chordiya has completed Classes 11 and 12, has performed well above average in both and has appeared for highly competitive entrance examinations.
“What he is now being told is that he is incapable of studying Science because he did not do Science three years ago in Class 10,” the court said.(PTI)
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