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Taking into consideration the pleas challenging the well defined objective criteria devised by the CBSE and ICSE to assess the performance of class XIIth board candidates, the Supreme Court has adjourned the plea seeking various reliefs in relation to board exams 2021 for Tomorrow i.e. June 22, 2021.

Vacation bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari while observing that, “We can hear those pleas TOMORROW. So that grievance would not remain.” directed the Registry to supply the copy of the pleas to the office of Attorney General of India Shri KK Venugopal and the standing counsels of CBSE and ICSE.

The observation came against the backdrop of the submissions made by Senior Advocate Vikas Singh appearing for intervenors wherein while putting forward his suggestions in relation to the criteria adopted by the boards to assess the students of Class XIIth, Senior Advocate Singh contended that, “Although there are some pleas which have been filed challenging the crierita but they’ve not been listed by the Registry”. 

The Court while deferring the hearing to June 21, 2021 had directed Senior Advocate Vikas Singh appearing for the intervenors to place his suggestions to be considered by the respective boards. In pursuance of the directions, Senior Advocate Singh today during the hearing placed the following suggestions that could be taken into consideration by the boards: 

1. The students should be given the option to choose between the two options ie for either appearing for the physical exam or for the criteria adopted by CBSE

2. Since there are several other writ petitions challenging CBSE's decision, our contention was that this isn't a market place and teachers and students can come with double masks. 

3. The criteria for CBSE & ICSE isn't certain. There is a great amount of certainty. There should be some uniformity.

4. Marking for the current year is based on the marking of the last 3 year. The difficulty here is that some students were in different schools. The basis should not be of someone else's batch. 

“There should be some hope of certainty for the students. The option of students to appear for the physical exam or not does not prejudice the students," Justice AM Khanwilkar said.

Senior Advocate Singh while making his submissions during the hearing emphasised on conducting the board exams physically. 

“The positivity rate has come down & this is a very very important exam. Physical exams are important because there would be a lot of UNCERTAINTY," Senior Advocate Vikas Singh argued.

The Supreme Court earlier had 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 had, while accepting the scheme 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.

During the course of hearing the bench also heard the intervention application drawn by Advocate(a) Abhishekh Choudhary, Anubha Sahai, Prabhu Prasanna, Ritika Ritu, Abhishekh Pattnaik and Nabab Singh seeking cancellation of Class XII private/compartment/ repeaters CBSE Board Exams. 

Appearing for private/compartment/ repeaters and relying on the directions laid down by the Supreme Court in the matter of Amit Bathla & Anr. V. CBSE & Ors. (2020) 7 SCC 233 Senior Advocate Abhishekh Chaudhary argued that, “CBSE has themselves admitted that CBSE would be able to conduct the exam in August. The Competitive exam such as CLAT is already scheduled for 23rd July. The counselling would also start. In such a scenario, if the results are declared late, the same would cause prejudice to the students”

At this juncture, Justice Khanwilkar said, “Can they appear in the exam without the result? Counselling for them can be deferred right?”. 

Answering Justice Khanwilkar’s query, Advocate Choudhary said, “Yes if this order is passed for deferring the counselling, then that would be great.”

The Court therefore while posting the hearing for tomorrow at 2:00 PM said, “We’ll pass final orders after hearing the parties tomorrow”. 

Case Title: Mamta Sharma v CBSE