SHC takes exception to universities and boards secretary’s no-show

Taking exception to the non-appearance of the secretary for the Universities and Boards Department in a petition against the delay in the announcement of annual examination results, the Sindh High Court has issued a show-cause notice to the official.

The notice was issued on Thursday during a hearing of the petition filed by Nazir Ahmed Dhoon who has moved the court against the unwarranted delay in the announcement of the results of the annual exams of Matric, intermediate, graduation and master’s programmes by the respective universities and boards of the province.

The petitioner submitted that 300,000 to 350,000 students had to suffer every year because of the deliberate delay in announcement of results by the universities and boards. As a result, students could not apply for admissions in other boards and universities as admissions get closed before the results are announced.

He said that it is mandatory upon every board and university to announce results within 120 days of the exams so that students could apply for admissions in intermediate, graduation and post-graduation studies.

According to the petitioner, boards and universities were not making efforts to conduct supplementary exams for the students who could not succeed in the exams to save their academic year. Due to six to eight months delay in the announcement of the annual exams results, a precious academic year of students is lost.

The court was requested to direct the respondents to announce the results of Matric, intermediate, graduation and post-graduation exams within four months and conduct supplementary exams regularly to facilitate students and save their previous year.

An SHC division bench headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar took exception to the non-appearance of the universities and boards secretary despite a court order. The bench observed that the purpose of the petition was to seek directives to the secretary to form some policy/SOP to ensure that the results after exams should be announced on their due dates as mentioned in the rules and regulations.

The court observed that the secretary universities was directed to appear for assisting the court in order to streamline such unwarranted delay but he did not appear despite direction. A show-cause notice was issued to the secretary and bailable warrants against him were also issued through the concerned SSP for December 13.