Class 12 Exams : Crucial Hearing In Supreme Court Tomorrow On CBSE, ICSE, State Board Exams

The Supreme Court will tomorrow hear petitions related to CBSE, ICSE and State Board Examinations for Class XII.

A vacation bench comprising Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari is scheduled to hear at 11 am, the petition filed by Advocate Mamta Sharma seeking cancellation of the Class 12 CBSE and ICSE written exams and the plea for cancellation of Class XII State Boards, HSC and NIOS physical exams, filed by Child rights activist Anubha Srivastava and 7 others.

On the last hearing of Adv Mamta Sharma's plea, Supreme Court had 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.

Attorney General for India KK Venugopal, appearing for the CBSE, had informed the bench about the decision taken by the Central Government on June 1 to cancel the CBSE exams and had further submitted that a decision on objective criteria would be taken within 2 weeks.

In response to request for a uniform decision with respect to State Board Exams, a vacation bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari had observed that interests of the entire student community will be taken into account, adding that it will wait for the decision of CBSE and ICSE first, before considering other issues.

"Everything will be resolved , all issues we will taken into account, interests of student community will be taken into account whether its CBSE, ICSE or other Boards." the Bench has orally observed.

In view of the uncertain surge in the COVID case and the feedback obtained from various quarters, the Central Government had 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 had come after, Supreme Court had observed that if Centre decided to depart from previous year's policy, it would need to give good reasons, as last year the decision was taken after good deliberation.

The directions were issued by the Court on the 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

Intervention Application For Cancellation Of Exams In Assam:

Students of Assam who are due to appear in Xth and XIIth State Board Examinations 2021 have approached the Supreme Court seeking directions for cancellation of Class X and XII Board Examinations, 2021 in the State of Assam.

Through an intervention application filed in plea for cancellation of CBSE and ICSE exams (Advocate Mamta Sharma vs Union of India), they have sought directions to the State Government, Assam Higher Secondary Education Council and Board of Secondary Education, Assam ('SEBA') to arrive at a formula for performance evaluation of the Students of Assam in line with the formula adopted by CBSE and other Education Boards and to release the results in a time bound manner.

Intervention Application for Cancellation Of Class XI Kerala State Board Exam: 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.

An intervention application has been filed in in plea seeking Class XII State Board Examination in different States, stating that the Class XI students of Kerala are similarly placed like the Class XII students from various States.