Students waiting for a decision on the conduct of pending Class 12 CBSE exams will have to wait for two more days as the Supreme Court on Tuesday, 23 June, adjourned the plea till 25 June, following a request from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was appearing on behalf of the Centre and CBSE.
The decision is now expected at 2 pm on Thursday.
The matter was adjourned after SG Tushar Mehta said that discussions on the matter were at an advanced stage and that a decision would be taken by Wednesday, 24 June.
“The discussions are at an advanced stage. By tomorrow evening, the decision will be finalised.”Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General
The plea was filed by a group of parents, who had requested that pending CBSE exams be cancelled and that students be evaluated on the basis of internal assessment. This, after the board said that pending Class 10 and 12 exams would be held from 1 to 15 July 2020.
While requesting the court for more time, Mehta said that discussions were at at an advanced stage and that a decision on the matter would be taken by Wednesday.
Speaking to The Quint, Rishi Malhotra, the counsel appearing for parents, said that both the court and Solicitor General Mehta agreed that it was an "unusual situation."
“Earlier, they were posting this matter for Friday, but I requested that every passing day would make students more anxious. So they posted the matter on 25 June,” he said.
On 17 June, the apex court had asked CBSE to clarify its stand on the conduct of pending examinations and file a reply before the court by 23 June.
During the hearing, the counsel appearing for CBSE informed the court that the said board is “in the process of taking appropriate action with regard to the subject matter of this writ petition very shortly.”
The counsel had requested for a short adjournment, in anticipation of the action being considered by CBSE, while assuring to intimate the court about the same at the next hearing.
Grounds of the Petition
The petition, filed by parents of students who have appeared for CBSE Class 12 examinations this year, demands that the pending CBSE exams be scrapped and students be marked on the basis of internal assessment for papers that have so far not been conducted.
According to the petition, conducting board exams in the month of July may endanger thousands of students, as the number of coronavirus cases are expected to peak during that period.
Further, the petition mentions that since a large number of the infected population could be asymptomatic, students could become carriers of the virus themselves, and thereby infect other students, and in turn, their family members.
It also alleges ‘discrimination’ and display of ‘arbitrariness’ by the CBSE, as several other boards and colleges across the country have cancelled their respective examinations. It also points out that the board has cancelled pending exams for schools in foreign countries that are affiliated to it.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)