Result of primary teachers' DPC published in H-Lanpao won't be valid: Jayentakumar

By Hueiyen News Service

Result can be valid as it has signatures of authority: Legal expert

Imphal June 29: Education Minister L Jayentakumar has announced today that the result of the DPC of primary school teachers published in the Hueiyen Lanpao would not be valid.

The Minister made the announcement at a function held at the JN Manipur Dance Academy auditorium organised by the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur (BSEM) to distribute awards to the position holders of the High School Leaving Certificate Examination 2010.

Minister Jayentakumar termed it unfortunate that before the result was officially approved, it was published in the newspaper. Some people had leaked it out which the Government views seriously. A high level committee chaired by the Chief Secretary has been assigned to look into how the result was leaked out to a newspaper before it was officially approved, the Minister said.

He said, steps were taken to declare the DPC result earlier, however, since the code of conduct for the Autonomous District Council elections had come into force, it could not be declared.

Now that the elections are over, the authority was planning to declare the result. Meanwhile, it was published in the newapaper Therefore, the Government is making arrangements to declare a new merit list, Minister Jayentakumar announced.

He further said that the  problem was created by some dishonest officers in the Education Department. Any official found involved in the leakage of the DPC result by the Committee headed by Chief Secretary will be punished.

Meanwhile, expressing his opinion, an eminent legal expert told this newspaper that the Hueiyen Lanpao had not violated the Official Secrecy Act by publishing the result of the DPC for appointment of primary school teachers of  Education (S), Governtment of Manipur. If the result was published without the copy of the order signed and issued by the Director of Education (S) on April 22, it could be said that it was  violation of the Official Secrecy Act. However, since the report was based on the order, publication of the report and result can not be termed as violation of Official Secrecy, the advocate said.

He further opined that even if inquiries were made how the Hueiyen Lanpao could manage to get a copy of the order along with the result and from where, there can not be any definite legal binding per se.

Besides, the advocate argued that there is legal validity of the order as it has the signatures of the authority concerned. If those officials, who had signed the order and the result, claim and insist that the signatures were not theirs, then the validity of the order and the result is questionable, and the Government of Manipur can cancel the order on the ground that there were irregularities in the DPC. If the Government does not cancel the order, it has to remain valid, the lawyer contended.
Meanwhile, anyone can go to court to find out the authenticity of the signatures on the order. The signatures can be easily verified through forensic test. If the signatures turn out  to be genuine, then those who gave the signatures can be given severe punishment, legal sources said.

What is noteworthy here is that even after a few days had passed since the Hueiyen Lanpao started publishing the result of the DPC, officially not yet declared, in series, no clarification from the department concerned as to whether it is genuine or not has been issued so far.