BREAKING| Class 10 & 12 Exams : Supreme Court To Hear Tomorrow Plea To Cancel Offline Exams Of State Boards, CBSE & ICSE

The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to list tomorrow a writ petition which seeks the cancellation of physical exams for Class 10 and 12 to be conducted by all State Boards, CBSE, ICSE and NIOS.

A bench led by Justice AM Khanwilkar directed that an advanced copy of the petition be served on the CBSE and other concerned respondents in the case. All State Boards have been made respondents in the writ petition.

Advocate-on-Record Prashant Padmanabhan mentioned the petition for urgent listing before Justice AM Khanwilkar.

"This is regarding class 10 & 12 exams. Physical classes couldn't be conducted due to pandemic. Even though Corona situation has improved, classes have not commenced", the counsel submitted. He pointed out that the bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar had passed a series of orders in 2021 for cancellation of board exams and for alternate assessment mechanism.

He submitted that the state board exams in Madhya Pradesh has already started and therefore prayed for urgent listing of the petition.  Agreeing to the request, Justice AM Khanwilkar said, "You presently serve advanced copy to the CBSE. Not the states. We will list it tomorrow. We have no problem. Liberty to serve advance copy to standing counsel for concerned respondents".

Padmanabhan submitted that he will try to serve all the States by tomorrow. The matter was mentioned for urgent listing before the Chief Justice of India yesterday, upon which the CJI said that the case will go before Justice Khanwilkar's bench, which dealt with exam-related cases in 2021.

The present writ petition, filed by child rights activist Anubha Shrivastava Sahai, seeks directions to the State Boards, CBSE, ICSE, NIOS who are going to conduct board exams for 10th and 12th in offline mode to pass a notification regarding alternate mode of assessment instead of offline exams.

Sahai in her petition also sought the relief of constitution of a committee for deciding the formula of assessment of students including compartment students and declaring the result within a time limit and deadline.

The petitioner has also prayed for directing UGC to constitute a committee to declare the date for admission into various Universities and a formula for assessment of Class XII students who want to pursue their further studies in non-professional courses by conducting an aptitude test or some other mode of assessment within a time limit and deadline.

Since MP Government was commencing board exams for class X and XII from 17th February, an urgent interim relief for issuance of directions to the Govt of Madhya Pradesh to not hold the board exam for class X and XII, till the final outcome of the present Writ petition had also been sought.

Case Title: Anubha Shrivastava Sahai v. Union of India and Others

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