"What Kind Of Petitions Are Being Filed?": SC Dismisses Petition Seeking Cancellation Of Offline Exams For Class Xth and XIIth

The Supreme Court today dismissed a PIL filed by Anubha Shrivastava Sahai seeking cancellation of offline examinations for classes 10th and 12th which are to be conducted by the CBSE, ICSE and state boards.

The Apex Court's bench comprising of Justice A. M. Khanwilkar, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice C. T. Ravikumar heard and dismissed the petition while observing that the students will be misled by such petitions being filed before the Court.

The Advocate on Record Prashant Padmanabhan who appeared for the petitioner referred to the orders passed by the Court last year regarding alternate assessment for the board examinations to which the Court remarked that "what has happened in the past cannot be the basis for the present relief."

The petitioner also submitted before the Court that the CBSE board had conducted the examinations in the offline mode with Multiple Choice Questions and the results for which have not been published yet along with many other state boards which conducted examinations and have not published results.

The Bench declining to interfere in the matter observed that "for the last three days we have been seeing news items everywhere. What kind of petitions are being filed? This has to stop." The Bench also observed that the authorities are working in accordance with the laws and that the authorities should be allowed to take the decisions and if need be then representations should be made to the authorities.

While dismissing the petition Justice Dinesh Maheshwari remarked that "these kinds of petitions create false hopes and mislead the students."

The petition filed by the child rights activist sought that directions to be issued to the CBSE, ICSE, NIOS and state boards who are going to conduct examinations for the class 10th and 12th should refrain from conducting the examinations in offline mode and pass notification to conduct the examination in an alternative mode.

The plea also sought for the constitution of a committee to decide a formula for the assessment of students and declare the result in a specified timeline. A direction was also sought for UGC to constitute a committee to declare the date for admission.