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The Court was dealing with a plea filed by a 12th student against CBSE for arbitrarily changing the weightage formula for declaring results at the last minute.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has been criticised by the Delhi High Court for acting arbitrarily and failing to notify class XII students in advance of the change in the weighting method used to determine the final result.
A bench of Justice Chandra Dhari Sigh directed the board to disclose the student's score in accordance with the July 2021 circular, which established the Special Scheme of Assessment and required equal weighting of the term-I and term-II theoretical papers in determining the score.
A plea had been filed against CBSE for announcing in a circular on July 5, 2021, that the Class 12th Term I and Term II (theory) exams would be given an equal weight of 50% each for the academic year 2021–2022; however, it was suggested on July 21, 2022, a day before the results were announced, that the weighting formula would be 30%–70%.
The High Court noted that the board's actions amounted to modifying the rules of the race after it had already ended and were therefore grossly arbitrary because of blatant errors and a careless approach.
According to the High Court, there was no evidence in the public domain that the Chairperson or other competent authority of the CBSE passed any such order approving, enforcing, or announcing the suggestion about the new weightage formula.
This demonstrates the board's arbitrary behavior and failure to inform the students about the weighting algorithm used to create the final result and keep them in the dark, Court said.
Accordingly, the bench directed CBSE to use the method specified in the original plan dated July 5, 2021, to compute and declare the petitioner student's result. It stated that in order to ensure the petitioner's access, the updated result/mark sheet created in this manner must be put on the DigiLocker as expeditiously as feasible, ideally within two working days after the date of the present judgment
However, the bench held that they would not interfere with the modified algorithm as a whole as it will affect around 14 Lakh students of CBSE who appeared for the class 12th examinations.
Case Title: DEVASRI BALI Vs. CENTRAL BOARD OF SECONDRY EDUCATION & ANR
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