A CBSE student clears IIT but fails in exam. Court orders re-evaluation

June 1, 2013, 12:00 am


The Delhi high court on Friday directed the CBSE to recheck the answer sheet of a girl who has qualified for IIT but failed in three subjects in the Class XII examination. Justice G S Sistani directed the Board to recheck and hand over the results to Livleen Kaur by June 5 so that if the results are different she can go to JEE for her counseling which is scheduled two days later.

The joy of clearing the IIT entrance exams quickly turned sour for Livleen Kaur when she saw her CBSE results. The 18-year-old was stunned to see that she had failed in three papers - physics, mathematics and biology. What’s even more surprising is that two of the subjects - physics and mathematics - were the ones she had to clear to crack the IIT.

Livleen Kaur (17), who cleared the IIT-JEE main paper and obtained an all India rank of 926, approached the court after the Central Board of Secondary Education results for Class XII exams showed her as having failed in every paper. In the results declared on Monday, Livleen had obtained only 2 marks in physics theory, 14 in chemistry and 7 each in mathematics and biology. Incidentally, she is shown to have obtained 29 marks out of 30 in her physics practical exam, and 30 out of 30 in the chemistry and biology practicals.

Kaur’s father Gurdeep Singh said the family approached the High Court after CBSE officials informed them that the application for revaluation or rechecking of papers would take at least a month. "She has to go for IIT counselling. With the incorrect results, she would be ineligible for an admission in IIT," Gurdeep Singh said.

What makes her scores more shocking is the difference between her practical and theory marks. According to her marksheet, Livleen has secured full marks in chemistry and biology practical scoring 30 out of 30 while she has secured a brilliant 29 in physics.

On the other hand, Livleen is said to have scored 2, 14, and 7 marks in physics, chemistry and biology out of 70 marks in theory papers.

According to CBSE, she has just scored a mere 7 out of 100 in mathematics too.

Justice G.S. Sistani granted the much needed relief to Livleen after she pressed for an urgent re-evaluation of her papers citing her counselling at IIT on June 7.

She said she has to prove that she has scored a minimum 60 percent in CBSE at the counselling session.

If the CBSE fails to provide her with an ’original’ marksheet by then, she would be declared ineligible for IIT.

The petition filed through advocate Ashok Agarwal said: "The petitioner has cleared the Joint Entrance Examination JEE 2013 (main) securing 926th rank and her counselling for IIT admission is due for June 7, 2013. It is submitted that the Class XII result as shown online shall render the petitioner ineligible for the said admission. The petitioner is of the firm view that her original marksheet would reveal the marks actually scored by her as those published online are not correct."

Stating that she is confident about an error in the CBSE results, Livleen, in her plea said: "Even as per the disclaimer published on CBSE website under the result, this result is only for immediate information and cannot be treated as final."