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) 59