CBSE, CISCE, State Board Exams 2022: The Supreme Court today, February 23 dismissed a plea seeking cancellation of offline board exams for Classes 10 and 12 students scheduled to be conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), and several other boards this year. Supreme Court Hearing On Board Exams LIVE UPDATES
The bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar dismissed the plea filed to cancel offline board exams for Classes 10 and 12, saying, "This cannot become the norm. Entertaining such petitions will cause more confusion in the system.” "Authorities are already working on finalising dates and other arrangements. If there is any problem once those are finalised then the aggrieved parties can approach the authorities," the bench observed.
The plea filed by the class 10 and 12 students of over 15 states sought cancellation of the board exams and evaluating students through an alternative assessment method.
Following this, the matter was presented before the Chief Justice of India, N V Ramana and he referred the case to the bench of Justice A M Khanwilkar.
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Dismissing the plea filed to cancel offline board exams for Class 10 and Class 12, the Supreme Court pulled up petitioners for filing premature petitions and creating confusion among lakhs of students through such PILs. It warned the petitioner of exemplary costs if such action is repeated.
A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar observed that such a petition creates 'false hope' and 'confusion' all over.
Advocate Prashant Padmanabhan, representing the petitioners, urged the Supreme Court to consider the current CBSE directives and also pointed at the petition filed in connection with the exams last year.
“CBSE has conducted the first term exam in offline mode in December 2021 in MCQ mode and results aren't published yet,” Advocate Padmanabhan said.
Replying to which, the bench said, “What has happened in the past cannot become a norm, and that will be misleading.”
Justice Khanwilkar said the situation has not arrived yet and told the counsel to allow authorities to take a decision in the matter. "How can you pre-empt everything", said the bench.
"These kinds of petitions are misleading, what kind of publicity these petitions get. These petitions create confusion. Let students and authorities do their jobs,"said the bench, also comprised of Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar.