HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF SRI LANKA, Annual Report 2019
Commission found a violation of Article 12(1) of the Constitution and
directed the child be admitted to the public school. Based on circular No.
22/2017 issued by the Minister of Education to principals which requires
applications for admission to Grade 1 not to be rejected by reason of the
absence of marks i.e. ‘0’ marks, for one of the criteria, if the basic
requirement of scoring above the cutoff mark is fulfilled, the Commission
found that the petitioner’s application had been rejected erroneously at
the interview as well as subsequently by the appeals board. The
complainant had only been unable to prove residence by producing a
property deed thereby losing the entirety of marks allocated for that
criterion at the initial interview. However, he could have obtained marks
for the remaining criteria if such marks had been granted. Subsequently,
before the Board of Appeals, the applicant was yet again denied marks
due to his place of residence bearing two assessment numbers. He had
not been afforded adequate time to produce evidence of the fact that both
assessment numbers in fact refer to the same residence. The Commission
was of the view that according to circular No. 22/2017 even if the deed of
the place of residence cannot be produced it does not preclude the
committee from allocating marks for other criteria. The Board of Appeals
has stated that the complainant had not been present at the hearing in
order for the other marks to be allocated. However, the records of the
Board of Appeals showed that the complainant had in fact been present
on both occasions. Therefore, although the Board had the opportunity to
award marks for the other criteria it had failed to do so. The Commission
directed the complainant’s application to be awarded relevant marks for
all documents produced together with the application and admit the
student to a parallel grade in the school if his application obtains adequate
marks. Furthermore, the Commission recommended the Ministry of
Education to conduct an inquiry against the 1st and 2nd respondents for
their failure to act in accordance with the circular.
3.2.3. Arbitrary arrest and detention (Article 13 of
the Constitution)
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