The Supreme Court was hearing an appeal filed by Maghi Devi, mother of a Class 10 student (File)
The Rajasthan government can hold the remaining state board exams for Class 10 from Monday, the Supreme Court said today.
A three-judge bench of the top court led by Justice AM Khanwilkar heard a plea of a parent challenging the timing of holding the exams amid the coronavirus pandemic. The top court, in its verdict, rejected the petition and allowed the exams to be held tomorrow and Tuesday.
The Supreme Court said it had passed similar orders for the Karnataka board exams and it was too late for the petitioner to approach the court.
"We find that as per the schedule published in the official website of the Board of Secondary Education, Rajasthan, Ajmer, the examination proceeded even on 19.06.2020, 20.06.2020 and 22.06.2020 to 27.06.2020 on every day. Despite this, not even a solitary instance has been brought to our notice where complaint about inappropriate facilities or the possibility of exposure of the students due to breach of standard operating procedure, as the case may be," the court said.
"Taking over all view of the matter, we decline to interfere in this Special Leave Petition. The Special Leave Petition is dismissed accordingly," it added.
The Supreme Court was hearing an appeal filed by Maghi Devi, mother of a Class 10 student, 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.
Academic activities across the country have been severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic and the nationwide lockdown. Most of the schools and colleges are providing online classes to students to avoid the risk of COVID-19 spread.
Class 10 and 12 exams of several state and central boards were also interrupted with the announcement of lockdown in March.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court had approved the assessment schemes of the CBSE and ICSE, which entailed cancelling the exams schedule from July 1 to 15. The students will be awarded marks based on the exams they have already taken and internal assessment. The boards will provide an opportunity to students to improve their marks when the conditions are conducive to conduct the exercise.
Rajasthan has reported 16,944 coronavirus cases including 391 deaths.