Sentence Correction

The board follows policies that are unreasonably strict and so inflexible that they refuse to discuss permitting leaves of absences even when justifiable.

they refuse to discuss permitting leaves of absences even when
it refuses to discuss permitting leaves of absences even when it is
it refuses to discuss permitting leaves of absences to be taken even when they are
permitting leaves of absences is not discussed even when
discussion of permitting leaves of absences is refused even when they will be

OA:C.
My problem with this question:What's wrong with D.
D is better than C as it is more concise, does not use the preposition they at the end that can refer to both policies and leaves.

Only reason that the writer of this question preferred C over D was that D was passive and C was active.

But we prefer active over passive when active and passive both are gramatically correctly written.

Nothing is "wrong" with D. Yes, it is in passive voice and that may seem particular, but just know to look for active voice. Very rarely will you have a sentence with multiple grammatically correct answers.

Jim, I think I got this.Thanks for your reply anyways.
Basically, the first part of the sentence is in active voice, and hence for consistency the second part of the sentence should also be in active voice.

I was considering just the second part of the sentence in C and D and from that D seemed concise and better.