Plea to cancel CBSE, ICSE class XII exams filed in SC

A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Centre, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) to cancel the CBSE and ICSE Class XII examinations.

CBSE through its letter dated April 14 had cancelled the examination for class X and postponed the examination for class XII. CISCE through its circulars dated April 16 and April 19 had cancelled the examination for class X and postponed the examination for class XII for an unspecified period.

The plea asked the court to set aside the CBSE and CISCE notifications of April 14,16 and 19, 2021 issued only in respect of clauses dealing with the postponement of the Class XII examination.

The petition filed by advocate Mamta Sharma asked the court to devise an objective methodology to declare the result of class XII within a specific time frame.

The plea stated that for the innocent students of class XII, “step-motherly, arbitrary, inhuman directions” have been issued to postpone their final examination for an unspecified duration.

“In view of the unprecedented health emergency and rising numbers of the COVID-19 cases in the country, the conduct of examination, either offline or online or blended in upcoming weeks is not possible and delay in the examination will cause irreparable loss to the students as time is the essence in taking admission in higher education courses in foreign universities,” the plea said.

It added that delay in declaration of result will ultimately hamper one semester of the aspiring students as admission cannot be confirmed until the result of Class XII is declared.