Re-evaluate blind student’s answer sheet: HC to MU

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the Vice Chancellor of Mumbai University to re-evaluate the answer sheet of a visually impaired student who obtained less marks in one paper.

A Division Bench of Justice B.R. Gavie and Justice Bharati Dangre was hearing a plea filed by Vaibhav Sangya, a law student who sought the court’s direction to have an expert examiner re-evaluate the Law of Evidence exam he wrote in May 2017. Advocate Rui Rodrigues, appearing for the varsity, said there was no provision for referring answer sheets for re-evaluation to another expert.

However, the court said, “We have taken into consideration the facts and circumstances of the present case, particularly that the petitioner is a visually impaired student. Also the gap between the requisite passing marks and the marks obtained by him is very less. Thus, we find that this is a fit case wherein extraordinary powers of the court under the Indian Constitution of India must be exercised.”

The court took on record that as per Clause 44 of the Vice Chancellor Directions 1 of 2016 “answer books already re-evaluated shall not be moderated or further re-evaluated unless directed by the Vice Chancellor in exceptional cases”.

The court said, “It can thus be seen that the Vice Chancellor in exceptional cases is empowered to send the answer book for re-evaluation on the second occasion. In view of extraordinary circumstances, mentioned above, we find that this case deserves sympathetic consideration.”

The court directed the Vice Chancellor to exercise his powers and send the answer sheet for re-evaluation within four weeks.