Read Time: 06 minutes

The Supreme Court today has accepted the decision taken by the CBSE and ICSE with regards to the well defined objective criteria that has been formulated to assess the performance of the class XIIth board candidates.

Vacation bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari while accepting the scheme has also asked the board to incorporate the provisions for Dispute Resolution in case students want correction of final result declared and a timeline within which the boards would declare the results and conduct the optional exams.

The Court while deferring the hearing to Monday has also permitted the boards to notify the final scheme and has directed Senior Advocate Vikas Singh appearing for the intervenors to place his suggestions to be considered by the respective boards. 

Learned Attorney General Shri KK Venugopal appearing for the Centre informed the court about the objective assessment criteria which has been formulated by the 12 member committee constituted by the CBSE on June 4, 2021. 

“Class 12th marks would be calculated by counting marks of Xth, XIth and XIIth. 30% weightage would be accorded for class. 30% weightage each would be for class Xth & XIth marks & 40% weightage would be for class XIIth pre board marks. Students not satisfied would have the option to sit for a physical exam.”, AG Shri KK Venugopal informed the Bench.

Senior Advocate JK Das appearing for ICSE Board also informed the court about the proposed evaluation criteria as per which the board would take into account the last year’s best performance and make efforts to declare the results earlier before the deadline which is July 31, 2021. 

Last year the Supreme Court in the matter of Amit Bathla & Anr. V. CBSE & Ors. (2020) 7 SCC 233 had directed the Centre to compute and declare the result of class XII students on the basis of their earlier grading as their main final examination had been postponed and could not be conducted due to the unprecedented situation caused by the pandemic. 

The decision has been taken against the background of the plea preferred by Advocate Mamata Sharma collectively on behalf of 7224 parents seeking similar orders/ directions in similar circumstances caused to Covid - 19 pandemic by exercising the powers under Article 142 of the Constitution of India to meet the hardships of the innocent school children of Class XII of CBSE and ICSE. 

The petitioner had sought for issuance of a writ of mandamus for cancellation of class XIIth exam and for issuance of directions to devise an objective methodology to declare the result of class XII within a specific timeline and to set aside the notifications dated April 14, 16 and 19 issued by CBSE and ICSE only in respect of clauses dealing with the postponement of class XII examination.

In pursuance of the reliefs sought the Centre on June 3, 2021 while communicating its decision to cancel Class XII Standard Examination had sought time to devise well-defined objective criteria for assessment of performance of the candidates, which decision will be taken by them within two weeks, as aforesaid. 

The matter is expected to be heard next on June 21, 2021.