SC rejects pleas challenging CBSE, ICSE decision to cancel board exams; green signal to assessment schemes
The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed petitions challenging the decision of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) to cancel board examinations.
A bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari also rejected all challenges against the assessment policies framed by the CBSE and ICSE to compute marks for class 12 students in view of cancellation of exams.
The top court said that the decision of cancellation was taken by the boards and the government at the highest level keeping in mind the safety of students and other logistical factors.
"Board has taken a conscious decision at the highest level and taken on larger public interest. We are not going to sit in judgment over it," the court observed.
Petitioner Anshul Gupta mentioned that if competitive examinations like IIT-JEE or CLAT can be held physically, then why should board exams not be held on similar lines.
To this, Justice Khanwilkar said that each board is different and their logistical needs are different. "Each exam is independent exam. Board has to take that decision," he said.
"Individual perception will not decide this case. Decision based on larger interest has to be taken, there are logistical issues and issues with teacher and support staff," Justice Maheshwari said.
"In our opinion it is not possible to accept the submission by Mr Anshul Gupta that since other institutions are able to conduct exam it does not mean the boards can hold the exam. Boards have decided to cancel exam in larger public interest. The policy adopted by CBSE was adopted by an expert body of 13 experts," the court observed.
As per CBSE's evaluation criteria, the class 12 results will be decided on the basis of performance in class 10 (30 per cent weightage), class 11 (30 per cent weightage) and class 12 (40 per cent weightage).
Meanwhile, the Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that there cannot be any uniform assessment policy for all board examinations, which includes those of the CBSE, the ICSE and the state boards.
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