The High Court strikes out a suit filed against Putrajaya and the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate, following leaks in last year's UPSR exams. – The Malaysian Insider filepic, April 2, 2015.The High Court today struck out a suit brought by a 13-year-old boy against the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate and the government following leaks in last year's Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) examinations.
Judge Datuk Rosnani Saub said the action by Ananda Krishan Menon against the defendants was not sustainable.
"The suit has failed to pass the test of reasonable foreseeability and close proximity," Rosnani said in her ruling when allowing Putrajaya's application to strike out the suit.
Rosnani said the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate's (first defendant) director may be responsible for the overall supervision and overseeing the UPSR but it would not be fair, just and reasonable to impose a duty of care on her in respect of each and every student.
She also ordered costs of RM3,000 to be paid to the defendants.
Following today's decision. the merit of the suit will not be heard.
Ananda, who has dyslexia, filed the suit last October against the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate and Putrajaya for negligence in the handling of the UPSR examination papers, resulting in some 480,000 Year Six pupils having to retake four of the papers.
He said that he had suffered from emotional and mental stress as a result of the examination fiasco.
The suit was filed through his mother K. Managala Bhavani through law firm Rajadevan & Associates last October 13.
Ananda, from Sekolah Kebangsaan Taman Tun Dr Ismail (2) in Kuala Lumpur, said he lacked the will to repeat the entire process of preparation to retake the UPSR papers.
In his statement of claim, Ananda said he was more depressed than the other pupils over the resit because of his disability.
Dyslexia is a learning disorder characterised by difficulties with accurate word recognition, decoding and spelling.
Ananda said that the government did not take action against the examinations syndicate members and their agents over the leaks.
"Instead, the government set up an independent committee to review its standard operating procedure in the conduct and management of public examinations," the schoolboy said in the suit.
He said the syndicate, its employees and their agents were negligent, which resulted in the leak of the Science, English, Mathematics and Tamil papers.
He added that the syndicate had failed to provide a safe system in ensuring there was no leak and failed to supervise its employees from the time the examination papers were sent to all schools nationwide.
He also sought aggravated damages for the mess created by the syndicate.
The examinations syndicate is entrusted to prepare and print question papers for all public examinations as these documents are classified under the Official Secrets Act before the examinations start.
The UPSR examination was held between September 9 and 11, but due to the leaks, pupils were told to resit four papers.
On September 30, pupils sat for the Science and the English language papers and on October 9, retook the Mathematics and Tamil language papers.
- TMI
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