No point admitting a petition but making it infructuous by refusing interim relief: Supreme Court on Bombay High Court order

The Supreme Court recently deprecated a Bombay High Court order by which the High Court had admitted a petition but refused to grant interim relief, thereby, rendering the matter infructuous..A Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh mused as to what purpose would be served by admitting such a matter and adding to the arrear list.“In any matter, more so of this nature, there is no charity to be done by the Court by admitting the matter and making it infructuous and adding to the arrear list of the High Court. Either the writ was liable to be allowed or dismissed. After opining it was required to be dismissed, we see no point why it was admitted,” the Court said..The Court was hearing a plea by two students who had been refused opportunity for improvement examinationThe two students had taken their class 12 board exam under Maharashtra State Board in February 2020. Minimum combined marks of 150 was required for pass in Physics, Chemistry and Biology.One of the petitioners scored 149 while the other got 141 marks..There was scheme for improvement as per which two opportunities would be provided to further write the paper in the next examination and improve the score.The first improvement exam was scheduled in November 2020 but the petitioners could not write the same in view of COVID-19 pandemic.The next examination was scheduled to be held in April 2021 but it was cancelled and postponed for September 2021The petitioners then filed a writ petition before the High Court which passed an order on September 2, 2021 stating that if the petitioners take the exam in September 2021, it would be considered as their first improvement attempt.The petitioners then took the exam but did not score well. Hence, they sought to avail their second attempt for the exam scheduled for March 2022.However, their applications for writing the second improvement exam were not accepted prompting them to move the Bombay High Court by way of a fresh writ petition..The High Court passed an order on January 28, 2022 admitting the matter. It however recorded in its order that the petitioners had availed two consecutive attempts and refused any interim relief.The petitioners then filed the present appeal before the Supreme Court contending that the High Court admitting the matter without granting any relief was pointless since the exams are scheduled to be held in March.Advocate A Karthik appearing for the petitioners, drew the attention of the Court to the paragraph 3 of the September 2021 order of the High Court in the first writ petition, wherein a concession was made and recorded on behalf of the Board. In terms of the concession, it was agreed that the examination to be held by the Board in the last week of September would be considered as the first attempt with respect to the petitioners.It was, therefore, submitted the counsel that the attempt made by the petitioners earlier should be taken as the first attempt..The Supreme Court said that whether in the facts of the case this preposition would apply or not is something which the High Court is required to consider on merits.It, therefore, set aside the earlier order of the High Court and sent the matter back to the High Court to decide the issue one way or the other.“We are thus of the view that the appropriate course of action would be to set aside the impugned order to the extent it grants admission and says no stay with a direction that the matter be examined in the contours of the aforesaid controversy at the admission stage itself and a view taken on merits one way or the other,” the Court directed.