Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 24: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to direct the Andhra Pradesh and Kerala state education boards to cancel the class 12 board examinations stating that there could not be a uniform scheme for assessment for all state boards across India.
The apex court refused to pass such an order while hearing a plea seeking cancellation of the class 12 examination.
“Each board is autonomous and different and hence the court cannot pass order on scrapping of class 12 exams,” a vacation bench comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari observed.
“We direct the boards to ensure that the scheme is formulated at the earliest and not later than 10 days from today and also declare the internal assessment results by July 31, 2021, like the timeline specified for CBSE and CISCE,” the bench said in its order.
The top court was hearing a plea that has sought directions to states to not hold board examinations in view of the Covid pandemic. “We make it clear that each board may formulate their own scheme. However, we further make it clear that we are not endorsing the correctness and validity of the scheme that will be formulated by the concerned board,” the bench said.
During the hearing conducted through video-conferencing, the bench was told by an advocate appearing in the matter that state boards that have cancelled the class 12 examinations amid the pandemic may be asked to have a uniform scheme for assessing students. “That may not be acceptable because every state board has their own scheme. It cannot be uniform. We are not going to direct for a uniform scheme. Each board will have to evolve their own scheme,” the bench said, adding that each board is different and autonomous.
It said each state boards have experts to advise them and there cannot be a uniform all India scheme for this. “There cannot be a fit-all scheme,” the bench observed, adding, “We have made it clear that each board is autonomous and they will have their own scheme.”
During the hearing, the Supreme Court also questioned Andhra Pradesh regarding its decision to hold Class XII examination “tentatively in July last week” and said the state should have ‘a decision and concrete plan.’
The Supreme Court had on June 17 given in-principle clearance to the schemes submitted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Council for Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) to assess the final marks of Class 12 students whose Board exams were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even after the CBSE and the CICSE boards decided to cancel the current year’s class 12 examinations and was approved by the apex court, the Andhra and Kerala Boards did not cancel the AP Inter Exams 2021 and Kerala Plus One Exams 2021, while many other state boards followed the CBSE pattern and cancelled the Class 12 exams.
The Supreme Court had on June 22 dismissed petitions challenging the decision taken by CBSE and the CICSE boards to cancel the Class 12 board examinations. The top court also upheld the assessment scheme brought out by the boards to evaluate the students’ examination pattern.
The bench had dismissed a bunch of petitions which challenged the cancellation of exams saying that the decision was “well-informed” and was taken at the “highest level” to protect the welfare of over 20 lakh students. “We hold that there is no need to interfere with the scheme propounded by CBSE and ICSE. It takes into account concerns of all students,’’ the top court bench said.
The bench held that there is no reason to interfere with the schemes of CBSE and ICSE, as they were “fair and reasonable and takes into account the concerns of all students and are in the larger public interest.”
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