RGUHS must train evaluators, provide key answers: Court

RGUHS must train evaluators, provide key answers: Court 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 12,04,2025

Bengaluru : The high court has said the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) is required to train its evaluators before assigning them evaluation work and also consider providing model/key answers to question papers. Justice Suraj Govindaraj recently made this observation while dismissing a petition filed by a postgraduate homeopathy student, challenging the evaluation of his answer scripts by five evaluators and also an ordinance on governing the evaluation process of the examinations for PG programmes, including diploma and superspeciality courses. 

The judge pointed out that thousands of petitions are coming up on discrepancies in the valuation on account of which students are being declared failed. “It is not only the number of litigations 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 judge added. 

“While preparing the question paper, the model ans wers 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 addressing the difficulties faced by the students,” the judge suggested. In the case on hand, one Abhishek M Sutrave, a PG student in homeopathy, challenged the valuation of the first-year MD theory paper — Advanced teaching of fundamentals of homeopathy — saying there was a large variance in the marks awarded by the five valuators. As his representation on the disparity in marks was not considered, he approached the high court. According to him, he stood 36th in the all India entrance exam and obtained 86% marks in the practical exam. He contended that he should be declared passed by taking into account the marks awarded by the 5th evaluator in the repeat examination. The academic council of the RGUHS pleaded there are over 3,000 subject codes, and 10 question papers would have to be prepared for each. Thus, there would be about 30,000 question papers, and as many model answer scripts and key answers would have to be created per examination. 

As such, a policy decision was taken that model answers or key answers could not be provided. “This decision has been taken purely on the basis of administrative difficulties... The academic council has sought to negate its own responsibilities on the basis of administrative difficulties,” the judge added.