Bombay HC asks MSBSHSE to release disbarred teen’s Class 12 marksheet

Bombay High Court has asked the  Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE) to release the Class 12 marksheet of a 17-year-old boy it had disbarred, while observing that it did not see the rationale why students who did not opt for Science subject in Class 10 cannot be admitted to the stream later.

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. 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.

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.

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. The result is that the young petitioner’s entire educational career and future is in jeopardy, the court said.

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.