The Hindu

• High Court round-up 

Bangalore, Mar 16: The State Government on Wednesday March 15, refused to permit a mentally challenged student of tenth standard from a Bangalore-based school to appear for the annual SSLC examination scheduled to be held from Thursday.

While the State's contention was that the boy had just 30 per cent attendance as against the stipulated 75 per cent, the boy said he was in hospital for being disabled and mentally challenged and, hence, could not attend the classes in a private school at Mathikere.

The boy said though he had paid the fees and filed the application form, his school did not let him attend the classes, saying that he was charged for offences.

In his petition, Vivek Savio said he had been referred to and tested by the Spastics Society of Karnataka and the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) in the city. Both had certified his disability. While the society gave a report on April 30, 2003, saying he was referred to it for lowered academic functioning, NIMHANS gave two reports - on May 9, 2005 and again on October 15, 2005. In its second report, NIMHANS said that Vivek could attend classes and that he could be provided with a scribe or computer for writing the examination. It said Vivek could benefit from remedial teaching and wanted him to be exempted from taking the Hindi and Kannada examinations.

He said he was implicated in a case and arrested by the city police. He was produced before a juvenile court which on October 8, 2005 released him on bail. The school, however, refused to let him attend the classes, saying that he was involved in a crime.

Vivek alleged that the school had his hall ticket for the SSLC examination and was refusing to hand it over to him. He sought a direction to the Karnataka State Secondary Examination Board to permit him to appear for the examination.

When the matter came up, Justice N K Patil sought to know from the Government if the boy could be permitted to take the examination. The Government advocate submitted that the boy had only 30 per cent attendance and, hence, was ineligible for taking the examination. He said while the headmaster of a school had powers to condone 15 days' attendance shortage, the board had the power to condone only 230 days. He said the boy could not be permitted to take the examination as the attendance shortage was on the higher side.

Justice Patil dismissed the petition when the Government said it was unwilling to permit Vivek to take the examination.