Karnataka HC asks RGUHS to reconsider decision against providing answer keys for evaluation

High Court of Karnataka directs RGUHS to reconsider decision on providing answer keys for health science exams.

Pointing out that thousands of petitions are coming up before the court on discrepancies in award of marks in evaluation of answer papers of medical and other courses, the High Court of Karnataka has directed the academic council of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) to reconsider its decision against providing answer keys to the descriptive type questions in exams of health science courses, solely citing administrative difficulty in preparing answer keys.

The court noted that the reasoning of the academic council would indicate that the council had expressed only administrative difficulty in preparing answer keys as there are 3,000 different subjects codes and 10 sets of question papers are prepared for each of the subject for conduct of exams resulting in preparation of 30,000 question papers. The RGHUS provides answer keys for evaluators only for multiple-choice questions.

“The very same person who is setting the question papers would be the best person to prepare the key answers or model answers. Thus, while preparing the question paper, the model answers or key answers could also be prepared by the very same person who has set/drafted the question paper. This would not cause any administrative strain on the university, but would go a long way in catering to the difficulties faced by the students,” the court said.

Analysing in detail, the pros and cons of providing answer keys/model answers, for students, teachers, and the institutions, the court said that it is high time that the academic council reconsider the issue in proper perspective and take action, rather than abdicate responsibility on account of administrative difficulties.

“It is not only the number of litigation that has to be seen, but the number of lives which are dependent on such evaluation too, more particularly students in the younger age group, whose confidence could be adversely affected if they are declared failed on account of improper evaluation. The impact of this on the psyche and the future of the student, on the family of the student, the society as a whole, as also on the college and the university need not be more emphasised,” the court observed.

Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the order while dismissing a petition filed by Abhishek M. Sutrave, a PG (Homeopathy) student, who had questioned the legality of a regulation governing the valuation of answer papers of post-graduate homeopathic course.

As the academic council itself is aware of a larger number of litigation due to discrepancies in evaluation due to lack of answer key resulting in huge difference in awarding of marks by evaluators, the court said that the council ought to have looked into how to solve the problems of the students, the colleges and the university, to stop the litigation, which are a pain for everyone as no student wants to come to court to agitate their grievances.