Bihar School Examination Board v. Suresh Prasad Sinha
Bihar School Examination Board v. Suresh Prasad Sinha
Bihar School Examination Board v. Suresh Prasad Sinha
Citation: (2009) 8 SCC 483.
The case discusses that the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 is not applicable with respect to statutory functions of statutory bodies.
Facts
Suresh Prasad Sinha (Respondent) on behalf of his minor son Rajesh Kumar filed a complaint against the Bihar School Examination Board on the ground that Rajesh Kumar appeared in the Bihar Secondary School Examination in 1998.
Rajesh Kumar and another student Sunil Kumar Singh were allotted the same Roll No. Hence, the Centre Superintendent allotted Roll No. 496A to Rajesh Kumar and this was communicated to the Board office at Patna.
However, the result of Rajesh Kumar was not published in spite of several letters written by him and thus he had to re-appear in the Board Examination the following year.
Consequently, he had to suffer a loss of one year allegedly due to the fault of the Bihar School Examination Board. On the other hand, Board stated that the Consumer Forum had no jurisdiction in the matter as the complainant was not a consumer, as defined in Section 2(1)(d) of the Act.
Issue
Whether a statutory School Examination Board comes within the purview of the Consumer Protection Act?
Decision
In this case, it is held by the Hon’ble Supreme Court that, the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 is not applicable with respect to statutory functions of statutory bodies. Here, the Board is a statutory body and conducting examination is in the exercise of discharging its statutory function. Hence, Board is not a `service provider’ and a student who takes an examination is not a `consumer’ and consequently, complaint under the Act will not be maintainable against the Board.
