The Jharkhand education minister asked students on Saturday not to resort to protests to express their displeasure over the marks they had obtained in the state board exams, his appeal coming a day after police were forced to lathicharge an unruly students' rally in Dhanbad.

Talking to reporters at his home, Jagarnath Mahto asked unsuccessful candidates of exams conducted by Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) to refrain from being influenced by certain groups and write to the JAC grievance cell.

“Protesting on streets isn't justified. If anyone isn’t satisfied with the results, he/she can apply for scrutiny with the JAC grievance cell. If any deserving student has failed, his/her results will certainly be rectified. Also, unsuccessful students always have the option of appearing for supplementary exams, ” he said.

Mahto did not specifically mention the Dhanbad lathicharge.

On Friday, a team of officials from the Dhanbad district administration and police resorted to lathicharge to disperse a group of plus-two examinees when they were trying to forcibly enter the district collectorate to meet health minister Banna Gupta who was holding a review meeting with senior officials.

Some of the students were arrested for trying to break furniture.

The incident led to an uproar on social media with many demanding that the officials responsible for the lathiharge be pulled up. The Opposition BJP also criticised chief minister Hemant Soren. On Saturday too several student groups protested against JAC, calling its evaluation process faulty.

The JAC, however, defended its 80:20 evaluation pattern based on marks obtained in class 9, 11 school exams and practicals or interneal assesments. JAC secretary Mahip Kumar Singh said this year’s results were historic _ matric pass percentage 95.92, intermediate science 86.89, commerce 90.33, and arts 90.71.

“This year’s results were the best ever for the state in both matric and intermediate. Of around 8 lakh students, only around 35,000 had failed. We request these students to enroll for supplementary exams,” he said.

On Saturday, JAC began enrolment for supplementary exams. The last date for enrollment is August 19. “After the enrolment, we will announce the date. Even those have passed can appear in the supplementary exams to improve their grades. Most important, the final results will not mention supplementary,” he said.