Sumit Mandal v. State of West Bengal and Ors.
Case brief
What is this about?
W.P.A. 27421 of 2023 (decided 18.01.2024, Biswajit Basu, J.) — dismissal of a candidate's prayer for permission to reappear in a failed optional paper. Petitioner Sumit Mandal passed the Higher Secondary Examination 2023 (West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education) but failed the optional paper, Physics, and sought leave to sit for that paper the next year, contending that without a pass in Physics he could not appear in the Joint Entrance Examination. The Council's position rested on the West Bengal Council for Higher Secondary Education (Examination) Rules 2006; Regulation 7 ('continuing candidate' eligibility) and the remaining provisions do not allow a successful candidate to retake a compulsory/optional paper in which he failed to secure pass marks. Held: petitioner not entitled to the relief; petition dismissed without costs. Advocates: Tarique Quasimuddin and Zainab Tahur (petitioner); Bibekananda Tripathy and Kaustav Chatterjee (WBCSSC); Santanu Kumar Mitra and Amartya Pal (WBCHSE). Keywords: Higher Secondary Examination 2023, optional paper re-sit, Regulation 7, continuing candidate, JEE eligibility.