I am heartened it did not take thirty years to get a hearing on this. Let us hope it would play out justly.
cm ******************************************************************************* NDA aspirants' fate still uncertain HC asks UPSC to review stand By Bijay Sankar Bora GUWAHATI, Aug 30 - The Gauhati High Court has raised hopes for the 56 students of Goalpara Sainik School whose applications to appear in the National Defence Academy (NDA) entrance test have been rejected by the UPSC on the ground of late receipt. After hearing a petition filed by the Principal of Sainik School where in it was pleaded that the careers of the students of the school should not be jeopardised for late delivery of their application by the Postal Department at the UPSC office in New Delhi and they should be allowed to appear in the NDA entrance examination to be held on September 15 next, the Court has directed the UPSC Chairman to be considerate in this regard. The petitioner informed the Court that the completed applications of the 56 students of Sainik Schools which were forwarded by the Principal, were despatched through Speed Post from Guwahati on May 11 last. The post office at Guwahati issued a receipt No. ED 8409894261 N for the Speed Post despatch. However, the Deputy Secretary of the UPSC vide letter dated August 10, 2002 returned all the applications to the Principal of Sainik School stating that the forms were received late on August 5, 2002 and not entertained for being late. It may be mentioned that the last date of receipt of application through post from Assam area was May 20, 2002. The Principal of Sainik School then dashed a letter to the Additional Secretary UPSC on August 15 explaining in detail that the students of the school were not to be victimised for the late delivery of the applications which were posted well in advance from Guwahati. The Principal requested special consideration on part of the UPSC and allow the cadets from the school to appear in the NDA entrance test. However, UPSC remained unmoved in its stand forcing the School authority to knock at the doors of Gauhati High Court which after hearing the petition issued a directive to the Chairman of the UPSC to consider the request made by the Principal of Sainik School through his letter dated August 15 for special consideration of the candidature of 56 cadets from the school to appear in the NDA entrance test. The court directed the UPSC chairman to dispose of the request of the Principal within seven days from August 29 on which the Court order was received by the petitioner. The Court also asked the UPSC Chairman to take into account the condition stated in the representation made by the Principal besides the prevailing law and order situation in the State. Talking to The Assam Tribune, the Principal of the Sainik School, Lt Col RS Nehra today stated that the High Court directive had raised some hopes for the 56 cadets of the school who had been toiling for months in preparing for the NDA entrance test under special guidance from the teachers of the school. He said careers of these students would be jeopardised if the UPSC did not consider their application. He said out of these 56 students, about 40 students had passed the Xth standard examination of the CBSE with distinction marks. Lt Col Nehra said, "I am sure that, if allowed to appear in the test, at least 15 students from the lot will cross the barrier as they have been preparing very hard. It will be a tragedy if the UPSC authority deny to consider their application at least on humanitarian ground.
