' The facts which form the background are that the petitioner, after passing the Secondary School Certificate Examination from the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Lahore, passed the Fazil Punjabi Examination from the same Board. Thereafter, be appeared in the Intermediate Examination (Autumn), 1976 (English only) and obtained 65 marks out of 200 marks, whereas the pass marks are 66-vide rule 10 of the Rules for the Intermediate Examination (hereinafter called the Examination Rules). The case of the petitioner is that under rule 13 of the Examination Rules he is entitled to the award of two concessional marks, and since he is short of the pass marks by only one mark, he is entitled to be declared as successful in the examination.
2. Rule 13 of the Examination Rules relied upon by the petitioner is as follows 1- "13. A candidate who fails to qualify for the grant of the Intermediate Certificate for want of not more than 1 % of the total number of marks allotted to the relevant Group, shall be given the benefit of requisite number of marks in the subjects/papers in which he has failed so as to enable him just to qualify for the grant of the certificate ; provided that these marks shall not be physically added to the marks obtained by the candidate in the said subjects/papers, or the aggregate, but the marks actually obtained by him in these subjects/papers will be included in the aggregate, and a note to this effect will be gigot.' I the certificate."
' According to the learned counsel as the total marks allotted for English language are 200, the petitioner is entitled to get two marks (one per cent. Of the total number of marks allotted to this paper) under rule 13 of the Examination Rules and thereby entitled to be declared as successful.
The learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the persons who are entitled to appear in English only, after passing the Fazil Punjabi Examination from the Board, are deemed to appear in the languages Group. In support of this submission reliance is placed upon the circumstance that the rate of examination fee charged from the petitioner is the same as charged from the candidates offering the Humanities Group. He, therefore, prays that a direction be issued to the respondent to award one per cent. Marks to the petitioner and that be be declared as successful in the Intermediate Examination.
3. The learned counsel appearing on behalf of the Board of Secondary Education, Lahore, has contended that rule 13 of the Examination Rules is not applicable to the petitioner's case and consequently he is not entitled to any concessional marks. Tee learned counsel submits that tine subject of English does not belong to any Group in the Scheme of Studies. According to this Scheme a Group of subjects comprises two compulsory subjects (Urdu and English) and three other subjects from amongst the elective subjects of the relevant combination of subjects.
Accordingly, the petitioner is not entitled to the benefit of concessional marks under rule 13 of the Examination Rules.
4. The objection taken up by the learned counsel for the Board appears to be correct. A reference to the Scheme of Studies for the Intermediate Examination the that it comprises :
(A) Compulsory subjects, and
(B) Elective subjects.
' The compulsory subjects are :
(1) Urdu or Bengali,
(2) English.
' Each of these subjects comprises two papers, carrying 100 marks each. The elective, subjects are divided into several Groups. According to the Scheme of Studies there are twelve such Groups and three or more elective subjects comprising six papers of 100 marks each are to be chosen by a candidate from one of the said twelve Groups.
5. The argument of the learned counsel for the petitioner that the petitioner should be deemed to have qualified in the "Humanities Group" does not hold water, because a perusal of the subjects comprising the "Humanities Group" shows that English is not included amongst the said subjects.
The other possible Group which could be relevant is tee "Languages Group", but a reference thereto also shows that English is not included therein, obviously because it is a compulsory subject and figures independently as such. It is, therefore, manifest that a candidate taking the Intermediate Examination on the basis of English only, does not belong to A any Croup to which the beneficial provisions of rules 13 of the Examination Rules are applicable. In this context, rule 16 of the Examination Rules is also relevant which, to the extent relevant, reads as follows:- "16 A candidate who has passed the Alim or Fazil Examination of the Board, or an examination recognised as equivalent thereto, may appear in :--
(i) English of the Intermediate standard and on qualifying be granted a certificate to that effect, provide that he had passed in English of the Secondary School standard.
(II) ..
' Clause (i) of rule 16 shows that a candidate who is allowed to obtain the Intermediate Certificate on the basis of passing English only will be granted a certificate to that effect only. In other words the certificate issued to him will show that he has passed in English only and not in any of the recognized Groups. It is, therefore, clear that the petitioner is not entitled to avail of the concession provided for under rule 13 of the Examination Rules.
6. The overall conclusion is that this writ petition must fall. It is accordingly hereby dismissed, but the parties are left to bear their own costs.