KUALA LUMPUR: A 13-year-old dyslexic boy failed in his negligence suit against the government over the leak in the 2014 UPSR examination.
High Court judge Rosnaini Saub held that it would not be fair to impose a duty of care on the Malaysian Examinations Syndicate for each UPSR pupil.
She allowed the application by the government and MES director to strike out the civil suit brought by Ananda Krishnan Menon.
In his suit filed on Oct 13 last year, Ananda Krishnan said that the MES failed to implement a safe system or take proper steps to ensure there was no leak of the question papers.
He said that the Government was vicariously liable for the failure of the MES.
Justice Rosnaini held that the boy's claim against the defendants was bound to fail and clearly
unsustainable.
"I am of the view that it would be stretching too far the test of reasonable foreseeability to say that the director is liable for the psychiatric illness suffered by the plaintiff (boy) due to leakage of the UPSR papers.
"The plaintiff was just one of the hundreds of thousands of pupils sitting for the UPSR in that year," she said.
She agreed with the senior federal counsel that public policy consideration must also be taken into account because of the director's position as a public officer.
Ananda Krishnan, a pupil of SK Taman Tun Dr Ismail 2, claimed that having to retake the exam had caused him acute stress, demotivation and frustration.
He added that this was further compounded by his dyslexia, which required him to have special needs assistance to study and tuition classes with fees of RM500.
In the statement of defence filed on Dec 3, last year, the defendants denied any negligence on their part and any losses in terms of depression and loss of spirit were not recognisable as the damages under the common law.
"Even though the counsel for the boy is correct in saying that psychiatric illness is recognizable damages in common law, in particular in the realm of tort of negligence, its recognition however
has limits," the judge added.
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