Delhi High Court: In a petition filed by Eshita Bashist (petitioner) who is a student of Hopetown Girls School (respondent 2) in Dehradun seeking a direction to Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) (respondent 1) to allow registration of the petitioner girl candidate for the Indian School Certificate Examination which has been rejected for non-payment of fees, Mini Pushkarna, J., held that subject to the petitioner depositing the up-to-date school fees for the current academic session within a period of 10 days, the school is directed to send the appropriate application with necessary recommendations to the CISCE expeditiously.
It is the case of the petitioner that the she was eligible for admission to Class 11th as she duly cleared her Secondary Examination in 2022, however, due to financial constraints, the parents of the petitioner were not able to deposit the fees on time. Thus, the petitioner was not registered for the 12th Board Examination to be conducted in the year 2024. Further, the petitioner was not allowed to sit for the 11th school examination, which would lead to the loss of her academic year.
The Court noted that considering the extraordinary circumstances of the present case, the student was unable to attend school due to a dispute with the school as regards the payment of school fees and despite various requests, shewas not allowed to attend the school.
On the aspect of attendance shortage, CISCE submitted that for registration for the ISC Examination, it is stipulated that a minimum of 75% attendance each year of the two-year course at school(s) affiliated with CISCE is necessary. The petitioner rebutted by submitting that the Chief Executive and Secretary of CISCE have the authority to condone the shortage of attendance. The Court directed the school to take further steps for seeking condonation for the shortage of attendance.
Thus, the Court directed that in case the petitioner clears the arrears of fees for the current academic session amounting to Rs 6,10,000/- within a period of 10 days from today, the school shall forward the case of the petitioner to CISCE for registration of the petitioner for Board Examinations.
The Court further directed that if the aforementioned directions are duly complied with, by the student, the school shall allow the petitioner to sit for Class 11th Examinations and the school may also make necessary arrangements for allowing the petitioner to take internal examinations of Class 11 before the end of the current academic session.
[Eshita Bashisht v The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination, 2023 SCC OnLine Del 1033, decided on 20-02-2023]
Advocates who appeared in this case :
Mr. Harsh Tikoo, Mr. Manish Kumar Kashyap, Advocates for the Petitioner;
Mr. Shoumendu Mukherji, Ms. Megha Sharma, Ms. Akanksha Gupta, Advocates for the R-1;
Mr. Kanwaljit Singh, Advocate with Mr. Srinjoy Ghosh, School Representative.
