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BREAKING -Class 12 Exams : Will Decide Objective Criteria For Assessment In 2 Weeks, CBSE & ICSE Tell Supreme Court
Srishti Ojha
3 Jun 2021 11:16 AM IST
The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted two weeks time to the CBSE and the ICSE to decide the objective criteria for alternate mode of assessment for Class 12 students, in lieu of the exams cancelled on account of COVID.A vacation bench comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari adjourned the hearing of the PIL (Advocate Mamata Sharma vs Union of India and others), which was...
The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted two weeks time to the CBSE and the ICSE to decide the objective criteria for alternate mode of assessment for Class 12 students, in lieu of the exams cancelled on account of COVID.
A vacation bench comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari adjourned the hearing of the PIL (Advocate Mamata Sharma vs Union of India and others), which was filed seeking cancellation of the Class 12 written exams, after two weeks.
Attorney General for India KK Venugopal, appearing for the CBSE, informed the bench about the decision taken by the Central Government on June 1 to cancel the CBSE exams. The AG further submitted that a decision on objective criteria will be taken within 2 weeks.
Senior Advocate JK Das, appearing for the CISCE, requested the bench for four weeks time to finalize the objective criteria. However, the bench led by Justice AM Khanwilkar said that four weeks is too long a time, considering the urgency of the matter. The bench said that the admission of students to higher education courses will get delayed if a decision is not taken soon.
"If you want you can do it over night also. Do it in 2 weeks. AG has asked for reasonable time. Don't bargain time frame, in fact you should be doing it overnight", Justice Khanwilkar told the senior counsel appearing for the CISCE.
The petitioner, Advocate Mamata Sharma, submitted before the bench that a uniform direction need to be passed with respect to the Class 12 exams proposed by different state boards.
However, the bench said that it will wait for the decision of CBSE and CISCE first, before considering other issues.
In view of the uncertain surge in the COVID case and the feedback obtained from various quarters, the Central Government on June 1st decided that Central Board of Secondary Education Class XII Board Exams would not be held this year.
It also decided that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) would take steps for compiling the results of class XII students as per well-defined objective criteria in a time-bound manner.
The decision has come after, Supreme Court was on Monday informed by Attorney General appearing for Union of India that the government would take final decision within next two days, and had sought time till Thursday to come back with the final decision.
The Bench had observed that if Centre decides to depart from previous year's policy, it needs to give good reasons, as last year the decision was taken after good deliberation.
A Division Bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari was hearing the plea filed by Advocate Mamta Sharma seeking directions for setting aside the Notification dated 14th,16th and 19th April 2021 issued by CBSE and Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination only in respect of clauses dealing with the postponement of Class XII examination
The direction has been sought to the Centre, Central Board of Secondary Education and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination.
The petitioner sought similar directions as passed by the top Court Court in the matter of Amit Bathla & Anr. V. CBSE & Ors. (2020), in similar circumstances caused to Covid - 19 pandemic India to meet out the hardships of the innocent school children of Class XII of CBSE and ICSE.
The Apex Court through that judgement, had directed the computation and declaration of 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.
The plea stated that CICSE/ CBSE had already, through their circulars dated 26th June and 13th July 2020, accepted and admitted the severe situation of covid 19 and partly accepted the judgment of Supreme Court passed last year for present academic session of 2020-2021 in respect of class X students. This has been done by issuing the directions not to conduct their fresh final examination and adopting the criteria of declaring result on the basis of their earlier internal grading.
However, according to the petitioner, for the innocent students of class XII, "step-motherly arbitrary, inhuman direction" have been issued to postpone their final examination for an unspecified duration instead of following the directions propounded and accepted by them last year.
The petitioner, enrolled as an advocate with Delhi Bar Council stated that she was approached by the minor students of Class XII approached, and filed the petition on their behalf, as their claim is genuine and to protect their fundamental rights of education under article 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India.
The plea also argued that in view of the unprecedented health emergency and rising numbers of the Covid -19 cases in the Country, the conduct of examination, either offline/online/ blended in upcoming weeks is not possible and delay in the examination will cause irreparable loss to the students as time is the essence in taking admission in higher education courses in foreign universities.
"As per the UNESCO statistics for the year 2018 around 7.3 lakh students had opted for foreign universities to pursue higher education. Delay in declaration of result will ultimately hamper one semester of the aspiring students as admission cannot be confirmed until the result of Class XII is declared." the plea stated.
According to the petitioner, it cannot be legitimately expected from the respondents to remain a mute spectator over the current situation and not to take a timely decision in respect of examination and declaration of result of more than 12 lakh students of class XII.
