Chautala clears Class 12, documents belie claim
Convicted in a teachers’ recruitment scam, former Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala could now land in a degree controversy, with official documents belying his family members’ claims that he has cleared Class XII with ‘A grade’.
The octogenarian leader who is serving his 10-year sentence in Delhi’s Tihar jail has taken Class X examination and is awaiting results, documents show.
The former CM’s son Abhay Singh Chautala was quoted by newspapers as saying that his father who was on parole had gone back to jail last month to appear for Class XII examination at a centre set up in Tihar jail and secured ‘A’ grade in the results declared recently.
The examination was conducted by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS),
Documents obtained by HT show that the 82-year-old Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) supremo took Class X examination last month with subjects, including social science, science and technology, Hindi, Indian culture and heritage, and business studies through Hindi medium. Class X result will be declared in the first week of June, said officials. Even Class XII results are expected to be declared by the end of May.
Chautala had taken admission in Tihar Study Centre, Central Jail No. 7, Tihar Jail in New Delhi.
“How can he get grade A for Class XII when he took Class X exam? We were taken by surprise when we heard the news,” said a NIOS official requesting anonymity.
When contacted, INLD supremo’s younger son Abhay Chautala insisted that according to his information, his father had cleared Class XII with A grade.
When told that his father actually took Class X examination, he said his nephew Digvijay Chautala had informed him about Class XII. Digvijay is the son of Abhay’s elder brother and former MP, Ajay Chautala, who was also jailed in the same case along with his father.
Jail officials, too, expressed ignorance about Chautala’s achievements as projected by his family.
“We have not received any report card related to the person. If he received his report at his residence, we do not know.”
The NIOS is an autonomous organisation under the Ministry of human resource development.
It offers open basic education, and academic and vocational courses for predegree level. It is one of the three national school boards, the other two being CBSE and ICSE.