SC Dismisses PIL To Cancel Offline Board Exams, Says Such Pleas Confuse Students

The Supreme Court dismissed the plea on Wednesday, 23 February, saying that such petitions give students false hopes. 

(Photo: Deeksha Malhotra/The Quint) 

The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday, 23 February, dismissed a plea seeking cancellation of offline exams for classes 10 and 12 to be conducted by all state boards, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE), and National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS).

The Supreme Court said that these kinds of petitions were misleading, and gave false hope to students.

The petition was heard by a bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar that had overseen the conduct of exams based on the CBSE's 30:30:40 alternative evaluation criteria last year.

"Such petitions give false hopes to students. Entertaining such petitions is only increasing confusion in the system. What kind of petitions are being filed? Let authorities take a decision. You can challenge that order."

Justice Khanwilkar

The justice added that he has been seeing news items everywhere for the last three days. "What kind of petitions are filed and publicity is being given? This has to stop... this will create confusion," he said.

"If the decisions of authorities are not in accordance with rules & the Act, it will be open to aggrieved persons to set challenge in that regard," the bench said in the order.

The Plea

The petition, filed by child rights activist Anubha Shrivastava Sahai, had asked for directions to the boards conducting classes 10 and 12 board exams to pass a notification regarding an alternate mode of exam instead of offline exams.

The plea said that students from different boards had approached the petitioner as they were facing issues with board examinations.

The plea stated, "The other petitioners are students as well as the parents from different states, who were aggrieved by the Boards' decision. That, the mental pressure that is created for performance in this exam is so much that every year a number of students commit suicide for fear of underperformance, or of failure."

Students' Concerns

Students belonging to CBSE and Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) are gearing up for the final-term examinations, which are to take place in April, despite not having taken offline exams in almost two years.

Meanwhile, adding to the students' anxiety, first-term results of CBSE class 10 and class 12 exams are likely to be announced soon. The CISCE, on the other hand, has already released the results of the first-term exams.

Concerns revolve around the fact that online classes have left students unprepared for offline examinations.

The petition, apart from asking for a notification regarding an alternate mode of assessment, has also sought constitution of a committee for deciding the formula of assessment of students, including compartment students, and declaring their results within a time limit, LiveLaw reported.

Soon after the plea was dismissed, disappointed students took to Twitter to voice how 'helpless' and 'underprepared' they were for boards this year.

Last year, almost all state boards had to cancel examinations due to the second COVID-19 wave. They followed alternate methods of evaluation such as relying on the internal assessment marks.