The Allahabad High Court today ruled that the date on which results were declared on the Internet by CBSE cannot be taken as the base for declaring a claim for re-evaluation as time-barred.

The order was passed by Justice Shishir Kumar on the writ petition of Roopal Mishra, a Class X student, whose application for re-evaluation of answer scripts was rejected by the CBSE on the ground that it was moved more than 21 days after declaration of results on the Internet, and hence time-barred.

The petitioner had contended that even though the results had been declared on May 21, he came to know about the same only upon receiving his marksheet on June 16 and submitted the application for re-evaluation the very same day.

Allowing the petition, the court observed, "India is a poor country and 80 per cent of its citizens do not have access to facilities like computer and Internet. The CBSE has come out with the argument that results declared by it on the Internet are considered authentic and at par with a certified copy for the purpose of seeking admissions into higher classes.

"Nevertheless, in the present case the student received his result only on June 16 and applied for re-evaluation the very same day. Hence, his application can not be said to be time-barred."

With the aforesaid observations, the court directed the CBSE to accept the petitioner's application for re-evaluation and declare results accordingly.