New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday (May 28) mentioned it could hear on May 31 a plea seeking instructions to cancel the category 12 exams of the CBSE and Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) amidst the surge in COVID-19 instances throughout the nation.
The plea, which additionally sought instructions to plot an ‘goal methodology’ to declare the end result of class 12 inside a selected timeframe, got here up for listening to earlier than a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari.
At the outset, the bench requested petitioner Mamta Sharma whether or not she has served the copy of the plea to the advocate representing the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). When the petitioner mentioned she’s going to serve the copy of the plea to the events, the bench noticed, “You do it. We will have it on Monday (May 31).”
“We permit the petitioner-in-person to serve advance copy on the standing counsel for the respondent(s), namely, central agency, CBSE, ICSE and also the office of the Attorney General for India,” the bench mentioned in its order, including, “List this matter on Monday, i.e. May 31, 2021 at 11 AM.”
The petition has arrayed the Centre, the CBSE and the CISCE as respondents within the matter.
During the listening to carried out via video-conferencing, Justice Maheshwari noticed that the CBSE is prone to take a name on the difficulty on June 1. The counsel representing the CISCE informed the bench that for the reason that apex court docket is listening to the matter, the excessive courts shouldn’t cope with it. “Nothing will happen till Monday,” the bench mentioned.
When the petitioner informed the bench that the highest court docket can take suo motu cognisance on the difficulty, the bench mentioned, “Be optimistic. May be by Monday, some resolution will be there. Let us have it on Monday.”
The CBSE had on April 14 introduced cancellation of class 10 exams and postponement of class 12 exams in view of the surge in coronavirus instances.
The Ministry of Education had lately sought detailed ideas from the states and Union Territories until May 25 on the proposals mentioned in a high-level assembly held on the difficulty.
The CBSE has proposed conducting the exams between July 15-August 26 and the end result to be declared in September.
The board additionally proposed two choices: conducting common exams for 19 main topics at notified centres or conducting shorter period exams at respective faculties the place college students are enrolled.
The plea filed within the apex court docket has contended that as a result of unprecedented well being emergency and surge in COVID-19 instances within the nation, it’s not attainable to conduct the examination and any additional delay would trigger irreparable loss to the longer term of college students.
“In view of the unprecedented health emergency and rising number of COVID-19 cases in the country, the conduct of examination (either offline/online/blended) in upcoming weeks is not possible and delay in examination will cause irreparable loss to the students as time is the essence in taking admission in higher education courses in foreign universities,” the plea mentioned.
“It cannot be legitimately expected from the respondents to remain a mute spectator over the current situation and not to take a timely decision in respect of examination and declaration of result of more than 12 lakh students of class XII,” it mentioned.
The plea has additionally sought setting apart of the notifications, issued final months by the CBSE and the CISCE, solely in respect of the clauses coping with postponement of class 12 examinations.
The petition mentioned it’s the utmost obligation of the state to take care of the well being and security of college students and on the similar time, to not hamper their increased schooling and profession prospects.
It mentioned the COVID-19 state of affairs is extra extreme compared to final 12 months and the respondents ought to undertake the identical standards of assessing the grading/marks of class 12 college students as finished final 12 months.
It additionally referred to the June 26 final order handed by the apex court docket which had accredited the schemes of CBSE and CISCE for cancellations of remaining board examinations scheduled from July 1 to fifteen final 12 months as a result of COVID-19 pandemic and in addition accredited their components for evaluation of examinees.
The plea claimed it’s the obligation of respondents to concern related course, as was accredited by the highest court docket final 12 months.
It mentioned the apex court docket could train its plenary energy beneath Article 142 of the Constitution to direct the respondents to implement the identical methodology as being adopted for class 10 to declare the end result and cancel the category 12 examination.Â
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