SC to hear on Wednesday plea seeking cancellation of offline board exams for classes 10, 12

PTI, Feb 22, 2022, 1:38 PM IST

New Delhi:  The Supreme Court Tuesday said it would hear tomorrow a plea seeking cancellation of offline board examinations for classes 10 and 12 to be conducted by the CBSE and several other boards this year.

“Without completing the course, how can examination be conducted,” a bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar orally observed after the counsel appearing for the petitioner said that although the COVID-19 situation has improved, classes have not been completed.

The bench, also comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar, granted liberty to the counsel appearing for the petitioner to serve the advance copy of the plea to the standing counsel for concerned respondents, including the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

“We will list it tomorrow,” the bench said.

The plea, filed by activist Anubha Shrivastava Sahai and others, was mentioned before the apex court for urgent listing.

The counsel, appearing for the petitioners, told the bench that the apex court had passed orders in 2020 and 2021 regarding class 10 and 12 board exams and this year also, the same problem is there.

“Last year, there was a scheme after your lordships intervention. This year also, we require some sort of solution otherwise this is going to drag,” he said, adding that this will affect further admissions and future of students will be in peril.

The bench asked the counsel whether the examinations have commenced or are yet to commence.

The counsel said that examination of the Madhya Pradesh board has commenced.

“Even though the corona situation has improved, the classes have not completed… Unless the course is completed, you should not conduct the examination. This is going to delay further. CBSE has not proposed any scheme,” he said.

The bench initially asked the counsel to serve advance copy of the plea to the standing counsel for the CBSE.

When the lawyer said he would try to serve advance copy of the petition to all the respondents, the bench granted liberty to serve the standing counsel for the concerned respondents.

The plea has sought directions to the CBSE and other education boards, which have proposed to hold board examinations for classes 10 and 12 in offline mode, to devise alternate modes of assessment.

The CBSE has decided to conduct term two board exams for class 10 and class 12 from April 26.

On Monday, the matter was mentioned for urgent listing before a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana.

The counsel had told the CJI-led bench that physical examination should not be conducted due to the pandemic.

The bench had said that the matter would be listed before a bench headed by Justice Khanwilkar.

On June 17 last year, the top court had approved the assessment schemes of the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) and the CBSE, which had adopted the 30:30:40 formula for evaluation of marks for students of 12th standard based on results of class 10, 11 and 12 respectively.

The CBSE had said it would evaluate class 12 students for theory based on 30 per cent marks from class 10 board, 30 per cent from class 11, and 40 per cent from marks based on the performance in the unit, mid-term, and pre-board tests in class 12.

It had said that marks obtained by class 12 students in practical and internal assessment on an actual basis as uploaded by schools on the CBSE portal would be also considered in deciding the final results.