Supreme Court directs NIOS to implement criteria for fixation of examination centres accessible to aspirants
The Supreme Court on Friday directed National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) to develop and implement criteria with respect to fixation of examination centres that would be accessible from the Accredited Institutions with which the aspirants are connected.
Court has also asked NIOS to fix the examination centres, within a distance of 10 kilometers from the Accredited Institutions with which they are connected.
"While fixing the examination centres, NIOS shall be at liberty to take into account the credibility of the Institution offering to be an examination centre and such other factors as are necessary to ensure integrity of the examination including law and order...", added a bench of Justice S Abdul Nazeer and Justice PS Narasimha.
Pragya Higher Secondary School had filed a Writ Petition under Article 32 of the Constitution, seeking a direction from the NIOS to fix examination centres for open schooling students at a reasonable distance from their study centres, referred to as Accredited Institutions (AI).
Advocate Anshul Rai, appearing on behalf of NIOS, brought to the court's notice- ‘Bye-laws, Governing Examinations and Certification 2012, (As Revised and Amended upto 2021)’ having a direct bearing on the issue.
The petitioner contended that despite the presence of either an NIOS Education Centre or other recognized institution existing within a maximum distance of 10 kilometers from the AIs, the students had to travel to the identified examination centre in Category A to Category E as provided in the 9Norms and Guidelines for Establishment of Examination Centre for NIOS.
A specific prayer was made for a direction to NIOS to evolve a policy of distance criteria while fixing the examination centres for the Public Examinations conducted by NIOS.
Court noted that by putting in place a Regional Examination Centre Fixation Committee to determine the conduct of the examination centers for NIOS a definite improvement was being made.
"...the need for order to ensure quality and integrity of exams must certainly be balanced with the quest to fulfill the purpose of open schooling. This is necessary to ensure that students who have not had the privilege of going to regular schools are incentivized, accommodated, and facilitated to complete the courses that they had undertaken", further said the division bench.
Stressing on why the need for holding an examination within a distance of a maximum of 10 kilometers seemed reasonable, court said,
"...a substantial number of students resorting to open schooling invariably come from rural areas. Most of these students come from poor strata of the society, depend on unreliable public transport and in all probability are employed for their livelihood. It is not difficult to imagine the consequences of inaccessible examination centres for such students....Inability to travel long distances for each examination, will only have the consequence of the student dropping out, which is the biggest challenge the Country is facing today."
A reference was also made to New Education Policy, 2020 wherein Chapter 6 records the beneficial effect of reducing the burden of distance to prevent dropping outs from schools through group walks, provision of cycles etc. for the Socially and Educationally Disadvantaged groups.
Accordingly, the Court held that a duty is cast upon the NIOS to fix examination centres in a manner to enable students to appear in the examination with certainty and ease. It is for NIOS to go an extra mile rather than expecting the students to walk long distances from villages and towns to take the examination, added the bench.
Case Title: PRAGYA HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL vs. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF OPEN SCHOOLING (NIOS) & ORS