Rajasthan Class 10 Board Exam 2020: The Supreme Court on Sunday dismissed a plea seeking cancellation of the remaining two RBSE Class 10 examinations scheduled, that are scheduled to be conducted on June 29 and June 30 by Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education, said a lawyer appearing for the state government.
The bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and Sanjiv Khanna, in an urgent hearing conducted on Sunday evening through video conferencing, dismissed the plea filed by one Maghi Devi.
Senior advocate Manish Singhvi who appeared for the state government said the bench after hearing the petitioner and the state dismissed the plea.
The apex court was hearing an appeal filed by Devi, mother of an examinee of the Class 10 board, against the May 29 order of the Rajasthan high court which had dismissed a plea seeking cancellation of the remaining examinations conducted by the state’s board of secondary education.
The appeal said that the board of secondary education of Rajasthan had passed a direction for conducting the remaining two papers of Class 10 on June 29 and June 30 and 11,86,418 students are likely to appear.
It said the board had conducted the last exam on March 18 and thereafter the examinations were deferred due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide lockdown.
The appeal further contended that around 120 schools, which have been earmarked as examination centres, had been used to quarantine migrant workers during transit to their native places.
The appeal also referred to the June 26 order of the top court with regard to remaining examinations of Class 10 and Class 12 of CBSE board as well as of ICSE board.
The appeal had sought an interim stay on the remaining examinations to be conducted on Monday and Tuesday. The petitioner before the High Court had also sought cancellation of remaining examinations to be conducted by CBSE due to COVID-19.
On June 26, the top court had approved the schemes of CBSE and ICSE for cancellations of remaining board examinations scheduled from July 1 to 15 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and approved their formula for assessment of examinees.
The top court had permitted the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to issue the notification forthwith, with regard to cancellation of the remaining board examinations of Class 10 and 12 and assessment of marks, while the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) said it would upload the notification within a week on its website.
The apex court’s order had come on a batch of pleas seeking relief, including scrapping of remaining exams of Class 12 scheduled from July 1-15, in view of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases. Similar relief was sought for the ICSE Board as well.
The CBSE class 12 exams had started on February 15 and were to conclude on April 3. The class 10 exams had started on February 21 and were to end on March 29.
The ICSE Board had postponed its class 10 and 12 examinations due to a coronavirus outbreak and they were to end on March 31. However, the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus pandemic came into force from March 25.
(With inputs from PTI)