PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Tuesday asked the University of Peshawar’s vice-chancellor and a teacher of the Economics Department to appear before it along with an examination answer sheet of a girl student, who alleged that the teacher had failed her twice in the said paper with mala fide intent.

Justice Ikramullah Khan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim fixed Aug 7 for the next hearing into the petition of student Pari Rehman, who complained that the university’s administration hadn’t accepted her request for the rechecking of her Developmental Economics paper through an impartial examiner.

The bench issued notices to the University of Peshawar’s VC and assistant professor of the Department of Economics Sajjad Ahmad Jan asking them to appear before it on the next hearing along with the petitioner’s paper.

It observed that if the petitioner was found to be failing the student due to ulterior motives, then the act would be tantamount to the misuse of office and authority.

Girl moves high court accusing teacher of failing her twice with mala fide intent

Alam Khan Adenzai, lawyer for the petitioner, said his client remained a brilliant student throughout her academic career and she had passed the Secondary School Certificate examination in 2011 by securing 874 marks out of 1,050 marks.

He said the petitioner got admission to the Department of Economics and passed MA (previous) examination in the first division by securing 372 marks out of 500 marks.

The lawyer said his client appeared in her final year examination in 2017 and passed six of the seven papers by securing 462 marks out of 600 marks but she was declared unsuccessful in the Developmental Economics paper with 21 marks out of 100 marks.

He said the petitioner re-appeared in the paper in the 2018 annual examination on Feb 14, 2019, but the paper checker failed her again by awarding 28 marks out of 100 marks.

The lawyer said the subject was taught by the respondent, teacher, and he’d failed the girl twice with mala fide intent.

He said his client had applied for re-checking of the paper in 2017 but she was told without proper re-checking that her marks were the same.

The lawyer said after the last examination held in Feb 2019, the petitioner had approached the university’s administration for paper re-checking by an impartial examiner, but her request was turned down.

He said the paper should be re-checked through an impartial examiner and if she was declared successful, the detailed mark sheet and a degree should be issued to her.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2019