Board Exams 2022: Why SC rejects plea that seeks cancellation of board exams

The Supreme Court has dismissed a petition that was seeking to conduct CBSE Class 10 and 12 examinations online.

The plea that demanded the cancellation of offline physical examinations to be conducted by different national and state boards soon was filed in the Supreme Court by child rights activist and advocate Anubha Shrivastava Sahai.

Now the students of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Council For The Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) and other state boards will give offline exams.

The CBSE has decided to conduct term two board exams for class 10 and class 12 from April 26 this year.

The plea had sought directions to the CBSE and other education boards, which have proposed to hold board examinations for classes 10 and 12 in offline mode, to devise alternate modes of assessment. However, during the hearing the bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar, Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar warned the petitioner that it will impose exemplary costs if such petitions are filed again.

While dismissing the plea here is what the Supreme Court said to the petitioner on his arguments.

''For the last four days, through such PILs, you are not only increasing the confusion but also raising false hopes among the students."

"This is an irresponsible misuse of public interest litigation. What kind of petition do people also file?"

When the petitioner argued that the court had considered a similar petition last year too and that the situation is more or less the same as online classes have been going on and the courses have not been completed yet. Hence the students haven't got the chance to study regularly in schools. To that, the court stated,

''Board and the authorities related to the examination are also aware of things. There is no point in interfering in this. This plea is premature. You should desist from filing such a petition. We also want to impose a financial penalty on you. But for now, we are just dismissing it. Authorities are yet to decide the rules and dates the decision is not in consonance with rules then it is open to challenge. Who are you and we to decide the states? We will dismiss the petition with COSTS.