Are the model answers distributed by the state Higher Secondary (HS) council to examiners themselves correct?

Calcutta High Court grappled with the question on Friday, as it found the answers, supposed to be followed by examiners while assessing the scripts, were not tallying with the information in the textbooks.

Justice B. Somadder said he may have to set up a committee to decide which answers were correct, but before that, he would like to go through the answer scripts of a few high-performers. He ordered the council to produce the scripts at the earliest.

While students who had appeared in HS 2007 claimed before a packed courtroom that the information provided in the textbooks, and not the model answers, were correct, the council’s lawyer argued to the contrary.

“It’s impossible for the court to decide which answers are correct,” Justice B. Somadder observed. “If the court fails to decide the issue even after going through the scripts of some brilliant students, it will set up a committee to ascertain which answers are correct.”

A few students who were not satisfied with their marks in science subjects in HS 2007 had moved court, pleading for a reassessment of their answer scripts.

Justice Somadder, after hearing the students’ plea, directed the council to produce the answer scripts.

The judge went through the scripts and found that the examiners had not awarded marks to a few answers, though they were correct according to the textbooks.

Grilled by the judge on the “lapse”, the council’s lawyer pleaded that the examiners had followed the model answers while awarding marks. The judge then asked the council to produce the model answers.

Earlier, a division bench had rejected the council’s claim that the court had no authority to ask for the model answers.