Will Class 12 Board Exams Be Cancelled? Supreme Court Expected To Decide On May 31

  • Shruti Kakkar
  • 01:27 PM, 28 May 2021

Read Time: 05 minutes

The Supreme Court has adjourned the plea seeking cancellation of class 12th Board exams for Monday. 

Division bench of Justice(s) AM Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari directed Advocate Mamta Sharma to supply the copy of the petition to the CBSE, ICSE and the Centre. 

The Govt is likely to take a decision on the exams by June 1. Be optimistic, we'll hear the matter on Monday. Until then serve the copy of the petition to the Lawyers concerned. Maybe by Monday some resolution will be in your favour.”, the Court said.

Senior Advocate JK Das appeared for ICSE and Advocate Mamta Sharma as petitioner in person.

The plea preferred by Advocate Mamata Sharma collectively on behalf of 7224 parents stated that in view of the unprecedented health emergency and rising number of CoVID 19 cases in the country, the conduct of examination (either offline/online/blended) in upcoming weeks is not possible and delay in examination will cause irreparable loss to the students as time is the essence in taking admission in higher education courses in foreign universities.

It cannot be legitimately expected from the respondents to remain a mute spectator over the current situation and not take a timely decision in respect of examination and declaration of result of more than 12 lakh students of class XII”, the plea stated.

The plea relied on the matter of Amit Bathla & Anr. V. CBSE & Ors. (2020) 7 SCC 233 vide which this Hon 'ble Court had directed the respondents 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 unprecedented situation caused by pandemic and therefore sought for 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 out the hardships of the innocent school children of Class XII of CBSE and ICSE. 

Along with issuing a writ of mandamus for cancellation of class XIIth exam, the plea also seeks for issuance of directions for devising 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.

The matter will be heard on May 31, 2021.