SC Dismisses All Petitions Relating To CBSE Examination Paper Leak And Retest

The Supreme Court bench of Justice S. A. Bobde and Justice L. Nageswara Rao on Wednesday dismissed a string of writ petitions filed in the wake of the recent event of the leakage of the Economics and Mathematics question papers for the class 12 and 10 CBSE examinations respectively.

It was in the light of a notification issued by the Controller of Examination, the CBSE made the announcement against re-test of class X math examination

Rohan Mathew v. CBSE

A student of Class X had approached the Supreme Court against the decision of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to cancel and re-conduct the Mathematics exam held on March 28 on suspicion of question paper leakage. According to him, about 16 lakh students appeared in the exam in 11 regions all over the country and abroad. The unconfirmed suspicion is that the question papers were leaked in certain areas coming under the Delhi Region of the CBSE.  Therefore, he stated that to penalise the entire student community for an incident which allegedly took place in one centre, is arbitrary and illegal in the absence of any evidence to show that the entire examination process was vitiated.

Senior Counsel Sajan Poovayya, appearing in behalf of the petitioner, withdrew the writ petition in the light of the notification dated April 3 of the CBSE vide which the Board decided to not reconduct the Mathematics examination for class X

Reepak Kansal v. UOI

In the said petition filed by Advocate Reepak Kansal, it was advanced before the bench that on March 28, the CBSE had decided on re-conducting the examinations for the Economics and Mathematics papers for classes 12 and 10 respectively “without considering the impact of the leak”. “The decision of re-examination contradicts the test of proportionality and reasonableness (as under Article 14)”, it was contended.
Dismissing the plea, the bench remarked, “it is not a part of the jurisdiction of this court to see if the paper was leaked...in writ jurisdiction, we cannot examine the impact of the leakage...this falls within the power of the authorities...”

Mahendra Pratap Singh v. CBSE

The petition sought a direction to the CBSE to not hold an Economics paper re-test for class 12 students following the question paper leak. The petition also said that if at all the test will be held, it should be made optional and not compulsory. Grounds of economic loss and inconvenience on account of summer training/internships abroad and preparation for competitive entrance exams were cited.

Dismissing the plea, the bench remarked, “It is not a moral concept that an examination be made optional”.

Alakh Alok Srivastava v. UOI

The petitioner-in-person had prayed that re-examination be conducted of all subjects for Class 12 within four weeks and not only of the Economics paper. Further, he had sought an independent investigation by the CBI into the matter. Also, he requested that the CBSE and the HRD Ministry be directed to pay damages and compensation of Rs. 1 lakh each to the students of Class 12 appearing in the re-examination “towards the mental agony, mental stress and inconvenience caused”.

The bench on Wednesday refused to accede to any of the above prayers.

Anasuya Thomas v. CBSE

The petitioners, being two class X students, prayed for setting aside the decision taken by the CBSE on March 30 to restrict the re-conduct of the Class X Mathematics paper to only the regions of Delhi NCR and Haryana, merely based on initial inquiries that the question paper leak was restricted to these areas. They also questioned as to why the had CBSE decided to conduct the re-test in July when students would be well into the new session and which would amount to adding to the stress of the students who have already been through much stress preparing for the Board exams by taking mock tests etc., since January.

The bench also refused to entertain the aforesaid petition.