Girl 'who killed self' after results declared pass; TSBIE cites "clerical error"

A girl intermediate student in Telangana, who committed suicide allegedly after results showed her as 'failed' in the annual exams, was declared pass following re-verification, but within hours the board reversed the decision, citing a "clerical error". The Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE), which took up the re-verification of answer-sheets after facing flak over alleged bungling in publication of the results on April 18, has been announcing the fresh results since May 27.

As per the re-verification, the girl, a first year student, got 48 marks in Telugu Paper I, an addition of 28 to the marks she had originally been awarded, and declared pass', her sister told reporters here Saturday. She held the TSBIE responsible for her sister's suicide, soon after the original results were announced. However, the board within hours issued a press release saying the deceased student's "marks were wrongly uploaded as 48 instead of 21 because of clerical mistake in the spot valuation camp."

It also uploaded the 24-page answer script of the student in support of its stand. The board said it will initiate "action" against the person responsible for the "clerical error" after conducting a detailed enquiry. It also described as "not correct and baseless" the allegation by the student's sister that she committed suicide because of TSBIE. The state had witnessed protests by students, parents and political parties among others over "goof-up" in the process, which allegedly led to suicides of several students.

The TSBIE earlier said out of the 9.43 lakh candidates who appeared for the intermediate exams in March around 5.60 lakh had passed while 3.82 lakh failed. Opposition parties, including Congress, BJP and TDP, and students organisations had claimed over 25 students ended their lives since the declaration of results on April 18. Following a direction of the Telangana High Court, the TSBIE reverified the answer scripts of the failed candidates. Since May 27, the board had been uploading results of the re-verification. It had said only 1,137 candidates out of the 3.8 lakh, whose answer scripts were reverified, have passed.

(With inputs from agencies.)