Board Exams Cancellation: Demand to cancel 10th and 12th offline examinations, Supreme Court will hear tomorrow

The Supreme Court will hear on Wednesday, February 24, 2022, a petition seeking the cancellation of offline examinations for class 10 and class 12 students across the country. The petition has sought the cancellation of offline examinations conducted by all state boards, including CBSE, ICSE, and the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) for classes X and XII.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will hear on Wednesday a plea seeking cancellation of offline board examinations for class 10th and 12th to be conducted by CBSE and several other boards this year. A bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar said that the advance copy of the petition is given to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) standing counsel and other respondents concerned.

The three-member bench will hear

In the Supreme Court, the petition was mentioned for urgent listing before a three-member bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, and Justice CT Ravikumar. Referring to the matter, counsel appearing for petitioner Anubha Srivastava Sahai urged the bench to list it for urgent hearing, as board examinations have started in many states and are about to be held soon in many.

Develop other methods of evaluation

The plea has sought directions to CBSE, other central and state education boards to devise other methods of evaluation. Because at present all the board has proposed to conduct the board exam for class 10th and 12th in offline mode. CBSE has decided to conduct Term-2 board exams for class 10th and class 12th from April 26.

If offline classes could not be held, then how will the offline examinations be held?

Advocate Prashant Padmanabhan, appearing for the petitioner, mentioned the matter before Justice Khanwilkar on Tuesday. Padmanabhan said the same problem persisted for two years. Even though COVID has improved, offline classes have not been conducted then how can offline exams be conducted? These should be repealed and an alternative evaluation process should be devised.

The bench will hear the response of CBSE

On this, the court said that give the copy of the petition to CBSE. We will list the matter for hearing on Wednesday, February 24. Wednesday's hearing will be restricted to CBSE. Earlier this petition was presented before Chief Justice Justice NV Ramana with the representation of students from over 15 states across the country, who agreed to be listed before a bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar.