The Supreme Court on Friday orally advised a petitioner, who wants the CBSE/ICSE Board exams to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 health crisis, to remain optimistic, while saying that the government may resolve the issue by June 1.
A Special Bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari adjourned the hearing of the case to May 31 on learning that the advance copies of the petition were not sent to them. The court said the CBSE, the ICSE and the Centre should be represented in the hearing.
“Maybe by Monday there will be some resolution… Be optimistic. We will hear the matter on Monday,” the court told the petitioner side.
The government is expected to announce its final decision about the CBSE Class XII exams on June 1.
The petition filed by advocate Mamta Sharma urged the court to direct the authorities to forego the exam and conceive an objective methodology to declare the Class XII results within a specific time-frame.
“Issue a writ of mandamus directing the respondents to cancel the examination of Class XII and devise an objective methodology to declare the result within a specific time-frame,” Ms. Sharma has urged.
Ms. Sharma said the CBSE and ICSE notifications deferring the exams to an unspecified date should be quashed. It said students cannot be made to suffer due to uncertainty in the midst of an unprecedented public health crisis posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The petition said there should not be any uncertainty regarding exams crucial to the future academic study of Class XII students.
Last year, the top court had asked the Boards to determine and declare Class XII exam results on the basis of their earlier grading. The petitioner said the same methodology could be used this year too. Both Boards cannot remain mute spectators and opt to wait and watch for the pandemic wave to ebb. Delay would put the future of the students in peril.
Ms. Sharma said the Boards have already cancelled the Class X exams. The same should be done for Class XII students.
“As far as the innocent students of XII are concerned, a step-motherly, arbitrary, inhuman direction has been issued to postpone their final examination for an unspecified duration instead of following the directions propounded and accepted by them last year,” the petition said.
