Delhi High Court Issues Notice In Plea Seeking Modification In Policy On Calculation Of Marks For Class X Board Examination

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice in a plea seeking modification of policy for tabulation of marks for class Xth board exams 2021 based on internal assessment conducted by the school dated 1st May 2021.

The petition moved by NGO Justice For All and moved through Advocates Khagesh B Jha and Shikha Sharma Bagga also seeks directions to all the schools affiliated by CBSE to publish the rationale document for assessment of students of class Xth on their respective websites, before calculating the result and uploading the same on the CBSE portal, to bring transparency to ensure that the students may access it and could raise their grievances with the board well in time.

A division bench comprising of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice and sought response of the CBSE, GNCTD and Union of India through MHRD.

The petition states that CBSE failed to ensure the protection of fundamental right to the students appearing in class 10th Board examination in the year 2020-21, under provisions of Articles 19(1)(a), 21 and 21A of constitution of India, thereby seeking the modification in impugned policy for tabulation of marks for class X board exams 2021 based on internal assessment conducted by the school.

On the aspect of moderation of marks, the plea avers thus:

"The policy of moderating the average marks assessed by the school, based on the historical performance of the previous average result of the school, in terms of the best overall performance of the school would be injustice to the students as the performance of school not relatable in any manner with the performance of the student."

The plea also states that such moderation of marks in consonance with the overall average score of the district, national and state average is "absolutely unreasonable, illogical and punitive for the students of the school which has been appearing in the board exams for the first time, having no historical data of previous year's performance."

The plea also states that the records must be verified by the team deputed by the CBSE in case of any grievance of the aggrieved parent or the student, for the unfair marks awarded by the committee.

"The Board's policy of punishing the students for the unfair and biasness practice of the school, by not declaring the result is arbitrary and the same need to be revisited with some amicable solution so that the students of the school should not suffer for no fault of theirs." The plea states.

In view of this, the plea states the following prayers:

- To pass an order, writ or directions to the respondents for the modification of impugned policy for tabulation of marks for class Xth board exams 2021 based on internal assessment conducted by the school dated 01.05.2021, by scrapping the policy of moderation of marks based on assessment of marks of class Xth students of current year with the previous year's performance of school, district, state etc.

 - Alternately, to direct the respondent no1 to permit the marks to be uploaded by schools even though the skewness with the average from the reference years average is more than +/-2 marks from the previous year's performance of the schools.

- To pass an order, writ or directions to the respondents to direct all the schools affiliated by the board to publish the rationale document for devised criteria for the assessment of students of class Xth on their respective websites, before calculating the result and uploading the same on the CBSE portal, to bring transparency, also so that the students may access it and could raise their grievances with the board well in time.

- To pass an order, writ or directions to the respondents to direct all the schools affiliated with Respondent no. 1 to publish the criteria of stream selection for the students in class 11th on their respective websites and to devise a grievance redressal mechanism by the students to the respondents for the same.

- To pass an order, writ or directions to the respondent no. 1 to keep the records of the students in their custody for any future verification of marks or to ensure that the methodology adopted by the schools are transparent and fair.

- To pass an order, writ or directions to the respondent no. 1 not to scrap the policy of verification of marks/reevaluation for the year 2020-21 assessment results.

- To pass an order, writ or directions to the respondent no. 1 to conduct the objective type compartment exam online by the CBSE rather than to be conducted by the school.

- To pass an order, writ or directions to the respondent no. 1 to devise the mechanism for rectification of wrong uploading of marks, in case, because of typographical error by the school.