And the answer is: WHALE

Updated on: Friday, May 06, 2011

Bad news for dog lovers. Your best friend has lost the race for coveted title of the “animal which can produce infrasonic sound” to the whale; the State Examination Council arrived at this conclusion.

This statement made by Advocate for the Council before the Bombay High Court (HC), on the basis of opinion of experts, will now enable a petitioner to qualify for the post of Primary Shikshan Sevak.

Shrikant Patil, who had appeared for a Common Entrance Test (CET) for the said job in May last year, had filed the petition saying that various answers appearing in the model answer key of the Council were wrong. The Council had, on the last hearing, told the court that they would seek expert opinion and inform the court about their reply. The response – whale – resulted in certain candidates losing out on one mark granted to them for the question.

Advocate Narendra Bandiwadekar, appearing for the petitioner, had argued, “As per Std VII General Science book and also the Science and Technology book for MPSC and UPSC exams, the correct answer is Whale. Since the incorrect answer is mentioned in the model answer key, the examiners have held the answer to be wrong.” Patil lost out because of only one mark, as the cut-off for selection of a candidate from the open category was 146, whereas he secured 145.

In the course of seeking an answer to the “infrasonic sound” question, the council also found that one such answer – which was not raised in the six petitions – was also incorrect. The correct answer to the question – “Which Marathi film won the award in the Best Film category for Maharashtra State Awards 2009,” was Natrang and not Jogwa.

The division bench of Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice Mridula Bhatkar also directed the Council to establish a forum which can be approached by a student/ candidate appearing for various exams held by the Council with their grievances. The court observed that this would give these students/ candidates a ‘less expensive’ opportunity to get their issues addressed.

And the answer is: WHALE

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