Board Exams - 'Out Of 28 States, 18 Cancelled Exams, 6 Conducted, 4 Not Cancelled', Says Supreme Court

While noting that 18 States have cancelled Class XIIth Board Exams and 4 States have not, Supreme Court has on Thursday adjourned to June 21st the plea filed seeking cancellation of Physical exams for Class XII of State Boards, HSC and NIOS, and constitution of a Committee to decide the assessment.

"Out of 28 states, 6 states have already conducted examination, 18 states have cancelled it, but 4 states (Assam, Punjab, Tripura and Andhra Pradesh) have not cancelled the examination as of now", the Supreme Court noted.

A Bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari also directed the plea to be served to the Standing Counsels of the States concerned, who have not canceled the exams.

"States of Assam, Punjab, Tripura and AP have not cancelled. Please serve the plea to them. List the matter on 21st." the Bench noted

"28 states have cancelled the class 12 board examinations. 4 states have not cancelled. We are informed Kerala has not cancelled class 11 exams. They may be served as well" the Bench further noted.

The Bench was hearing the plea filed by Child rights activist Anubha Srivastava and 7 others, on behalf of 47 students from 23 different States and 2 UTS and 3 different countries.

The plea has sought directions to the State Boards as well as UGC regarding cancellation of Class XII exam and a uniform formula of assessment, to meet out the hardships of the Class XII students of State Board, as were passed were passed by the Court last year.

The plea has sought directions to the UGC to constitute a Committee to decide a formula for assessment of Class XII students who want to pursue further studies in non-professional courses. Its been stated that an aptitude test or other form of assessment be conducted for such students.

The plea filed by Advocate Shahsibhushan Adgaonkar has cited Supreme Court's order in case of Amit Bathla & Anr. V. CBSE whereby the court had directed the CBSE & ICE to compute and declare the result of class XII students on the basis of their earlier grading as their main final examination had been postponed and could not be conducted due to unprecedented situation caused by pandemic.

Intervention Application for Cancellation Of Class XI Kerala State Board Exam: An Intervention Application has also been filed in the present case for Cancellation Of Class XI Kerala State Board Exam. The parents of Class XI students from Kerala have approached the top Court seeking directions for cancellation of Class XI Examination to be conducted by Kerala State Board on September 6th, 2021, in wake of the Pandemic.

The intervention has been sought in the present case stating that the Class XI students of Kerala are similarly placed like the Class XII students from various States.

Click here to read/download the order