Mita Mukherjee

The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday hauled up the authorities of St Augustine’s Day School, Kolkata for not informing parents that the ICSE council had deactivated the school affiliation and students would not be able to write the board examinations in 2024. The court described the act of the school as a “criminal offence” and told parents that a FIR has to be registered against the school.

A single-bench of Justice Biswajit Basu said this while hearing a plea filed by guardians of 76 students studying in Class X alleging that their wards had not been registered with the Council for the Indian Certificate School Examinations for appearing in ICSE (Class X) board exam in 2024.

The court said that the “innocent students” should not suffer and necessary measures need to be taken to ensure that the students are able to appear in the Class X board examinations next year.

A group of parents of St Augustine’s Day School had staged a protest in front of the institution on September 7 after they came to know that the school had lost its affiliation and nearly 237 students studying in Classes X and XII may not be able to sit for the board exams next year. The agitating parents were also seen thrashing the school principal when he tried to enter the school premises on the day of the agitation.

Senior advocate Kalyan Bandyopadhyay representing the petitioners admitted before the court that the school had admitted students in Classes IX and X despite losing the affiliation giving them the impression that they would be able to write the board exams next year.

“This is a criminal offence… A FIR will have to be registered,” the judge said hearing the case.

The advocate for the ICSE council said that the affiliation of the school had been suspended because the council after a series of inspections found that the campus does not have proper infrastructure. The school had been informed several times that with the suspension of affiliation students appearing in the 2024 board exams could not be registered and the school should inform this to the students accordingly.

The council advocate admitted that students should not suffer for this and arrangements could be made to protect the future of students. The council advocate also appealed to the court for a direction to this effect.

The school counsel said that the authorities had given provisional admission to the students after getting informed by the ICSE council that the affiliation would be renewed.

After hearing the submissions of all the parties the court appointed a special officer to examine the school records and ascertain the details of all the students who will be appearing in the board exams next year.

The matter will come up for hearing again on September 21.

Also read: Kolkata: Parents assault school principal after loss of board affiliation