SC delivers verdict in petitions against govt’s decision on 2024 Scholarship Exam

The Supreme Court has declared that the fundamental human rights have been violated through the government’s decision to award free marks to all students for the three questions of the 2024 Grade 05 Scholarship Examination which are alleged to have been leaked.

Accordingly, the court also ordered the Commissioner General of Examinations to immediately implement a suitable recommendation out of the three recommendations made by the experts’ committee appointed to look into the matter.

Additionally, the judge bench also fined the suspects who have allegedly assisted in leaking the three questions of the question paper ii of the 2024 Grade 05 Scholarship Examination. 

Accordingly, the Director of the Planning Division of the National Institute of Education (NIE) in Maharagama, I.G.S. Prematilake, was ordered to pay a fine of Rs. 3 million to the government while Chaminda Kumara Ilangasinghe, a school teacher, was fined Rs. 2 million.

Issuing the verdict, the Supreme Court declared that both the provisions of the Constitution as well as the provisions of the Public Examinations Act would not empower either the Minister or the Secretary to the Ministry to participate in the decision-making process, issue directions to the Commissioner of Examinations, assume to themselves the decision-making power, or influence the process in a manner that would take away, curtail or inhibit the discretionary authority vested in the Commissioner of Examinations by the Public Examinations Act. 

“This does not mean that the public functionary cannot engage in a process of consultation with the Minister or the Secretary, subject to the important caveat that the final decision must always be that of the public functionary who is required by law to take such decision”, the court verdict reads.

Furthermore, the Supreme Court has also stated that however, neither the authority vested in the Minister and the Secretary to engage in superintendence, nor the authority to supervise the functions of the Commissioner of Examinations would include legal authority to usurp the power vested in the Commissioner of Examinations and that similarly, the Commissioner of Examinations cannot abdicate expressly or impliedly either to the Minister or to the Secretary, the decision-making authority vested in him by law.

During previous hearings, the court was informed that the Cabinet of Ministers had recommended to award free marks to all students for the 03 questions which were alleged to have been leaked in the 2024 Grade 5 Scholarship Examination.

This verdict was issued by the three-member Supreme Court judge bench comprising Justices Yasantha Kodagoda, Kumuduni Wickremesinghe and Arjuna Obeysekara, following the consideration of four petitions filed by a group of students who sat for the examination and their parents, expressing concerns over the fairness of the process.

The petitioners had sought a ruling that their fundamental human rights were violated through the government’s decision to award free marks to all students for the three questions of the 2024 Grade 05 Scholarship Examination which are alleged to have been leaked.

On September 20, an investigation was launched by the Department of Examinations after it was alleged that three questions of one of the question papers from the exam had been leaked. Later, the initial investigation report was handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), which also launched a separate investigation into the matter.

The investigations had uncovered that only three questions from the exam had been leaked in advance. However, the incident stirred controversy as a group of parents, holding press conferences and staging protests on several occasions, had claimed that the entire question paper had been leaked.

Against this backdrop, the Director of the Planning Division of the National Institute of Education (NIE) in Maharagama and a school teacher, who were arrested by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) over the question paper issue, were remanded until October 22.

The arrested 58-year-old NIE Director was a member of the committee which prepared the 2024 Grade 05 Scholarship Examination paper, and the 49-year-old teacher had been conducting tuition classes for Grade 05 students.

The parents raised the issue with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, and as a result, the evaluation of the answer sheets for the scholarship examination was suspended until the investigation was completed.

On October 14, the Commissioner General of Examinations Amith Jayasundara announced that it was decided not to re-conduct the 2024 Grade 05 Scholarship Examination. Furthermore, it had been decided to award free marks to all students for the 03 questions which were alleged to have been leaked.

However in November, the Supreme Court issued an interim order preventing the release of results of the 2024 Grade 5 Scholarship Examination.

SC Verdict by Adaderana Online on Scribd