The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a student’s plea to quash the decision of the CBSE to hold a re-examination of Class 10 Maths following reports of the question papers being leaked .
In an urgent mentioning, a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said the petition would be heard on April 4.
Fifteen-year-old Rohan Mathew, a Class 10 student from Kerala, argued that CBSE’s decision to cancel the Maths exam “merely on the basis of an unconfirmed apprehension” of a leak in Delhi has put the future of over 16 lakh students who appeared for the exam on March 28, in India and abroad, in peril.
“Unless there is evidence for widespread and systemic leaking of papers, cancellation of examination of this magnitude is not the solution,” Mathew, represented by advocates Liz Mathew and Raghenth Basant, argued.
He alluded to the 1984 movie The Karate Kid in which the wise old master tells his young student that “there is no such thing as a bad student, but only a bad teacher.” Mathew said no matter how good or bad a teacher was, the responsibility finally always fell on the student to perform.
“To penalise the entire student community for an incident which allegedly took place in one centre, is arbitrary and illegal in the absence of any evidence to show that the entire examination process was vitiated,” the petition, which was filed on Saturday morning in the apex court Registry, said.
The petition said question papers are set by the CBSE maintaining utmost secrecy. Multiple set of question papers are prepared. Secrecy officers are appointed by the C.B.S.E for maintaining the confidentiality and strict guidelines are issued to ensure that the question papers are in the exclusive custody of the Controller of Examinations and other officers identified by the CBSE chairperson.
“That being the factual position, there is absolutely no justification whatsoever on the part of the CBSE in deciding to re-conduct the Mathematics examination of Class 10 on the mere likelihood of the exam having been compromised,” the petition said.
The petition, filed by the student through his father Santhosh Mathew, urged the court to direct the CBSE to go ahead with the valuation of the answer-sheets.
The student further asked the apex court to constitute a Special High Powered Committee to conduct a detailed enquiry into the facts and circumstances which led CBSE to hold a re-examination. Mathew has sought “stringent action against the erring officers of the CBSE for jeopardising the career of nearly 16 lakh students”.
