Supreme Court to hear plea's seeking cancellation of Class 12 state boards on June 22
The Supreme Court today has adjourned the plea seeking cancellation of Class XIIth State Board for June 22, 2021.
Vacation bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari while directing the counsel for Kerala to seek instructions in relation to an intervention application filed by parents of some students seeking directions to cancel the Exam to be conducted from September 6 to September 16 said,
“Please take instructions tomorrow & we'll pass the orders.”
Advocate Shuvodeep Roy appearing for the State of Tripura informed the Court about the State’s decision to cancel the exams and asked if he should place a statement on record to which the Court agreed.
Advocate Nalin Kohli appearing for State of Assam also informed the bench about the State’s decision to cancel the board exams.
Advocate on Record Shashidhar appearing for the petitioners submitted that even Punjab had decided to cancel the exam but Andhra Pradesh until now had not decided to cancel the exam.
Appearing for the State of Andhra Pradesh, Senior Advocate Nazki submitted that the State intended to conduct the state board exams physically.
Vacation bench of Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice Dinesh Maheshwari while taking note of the fact that out of 28 states, 6 states have conducted the exam, 18 states have cancelled the exam and 4 states (Assam, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh & Punjab) had earlier directed the petitioner’s counsel to serve the copy to the states who were yet to cancel the state board exams.
The plea was filed through Advocate Anubha Shrivastava Sahai. It also sought for the constitution of a committee to decide the formula of assessment of students including compartment students and declare the result within a time limit.
Advocate Sahai in her plea had averred that due to the pandemic situation some of the State Government’s took decision for cancellation of the Higher Secondary Certificate Examination (“HSC Exam”) which were scheduled formerly for March but in some State Governments have still not taken any decision regarding cancellation of the said exam.
She further contended that HSC Board has still not devised any formula regarding how they are going to assess the students of Class XII for their further admission for professional as well as non professional courses, in the event of cancellation of the exam.
It was also contented by Advocate Sahai that admitting the severe situation of covid 19 and in view of the judgement of the Top Court in the matter of Amit Bathla & Anr. V. CBSE & Ors. (2020) 7 SCC 233, the CICSE/CBSE has partly accepted the judgment of this Hon'ble Court for present academic session of 2020-2021 in respect of class X students by way of issuing the directions not to conduct their· fresh final examination.
However with regards to Secondary School Certificate i.e. SSC by State Board, most of the State Governments have still not accepted the directions laid down by the Court in the matter of Amit Bathla and are yet to cancel the class Xth SCC State Board students.
Case Title: Anubha Shrivastava Sahai and Ors v Union of India & Ors.