The state government on Monday tendered an unconditional written apology to the high court for misleading the court by making wrong submission on awarding grace marks to II PUC Mathematics students.

Contrary to earlier claims that no grace marks were awarded, Advocate General Madhusudhan R Naik said due to some miscommunication in the Pre-University Board, wrong submissions were made in court. He admitted that grace marks were awarded.

Hearing an interlocutory application for recalling the court’s earlier order dismissing a PIL against award of grace marks, a division bench comprising Chief Justice S K Mukherjee and Justice Ravi Malimath admonished that no  irresponsible submissions should be made in court without proper instructions from the government. 

Bhuvanjyothi Education Trust, a CBSE school located in Dakshina Kannada district, had filed the PIL challenging the decision to award grace marks to students who appeared for the II PUC examination.

The petitioner said awarding grace marks would adversely affect the CET rankings of students who have completed the course under CBSE syllabus. The petitioner sought the court’s direction to consider only CET marks. Department of Pre-University Education  director Ramegowda, in his affidavit, said the expert committee report stated that no questions were out of syllabus.


Hence, It was decided not to grant any grace marks. A subsequent meeting of chief examiners and deputy chief examiners on April 20 favoured “liberal valuation” in respect of seven questions. The decision, however, was not communicated to the PU director.

Around the same time, mathematics lecturers enlisted for evaluation work went on strike, protests by students and parents erupted against delay in evaluation, and the media ran reports on leakage of question papers. Owing to the prevailing tense situation, the chief examiner could not communicate the decision on “liberal valuation”.